Clash Of The Prime-Time Titans

It’s not rare for news channels these days to gloat over exclusives, target rating points, or TRPs, and the mistakes of their rivals. One thing though remains constant, plausible deniability is rule number one when it comes to attacking a rival. Feel free to insult a rival but don’t name names in case you have to rub shoulders at a dinner, or worse, in case your insult boomerangs.

It’s probably the reason why NewsX’s actual slogan is “News not noise”– a less than subtle reference to India’s number 1 anchor (if we’re judging by decibel levels at least). While Times Now routinely lampoons its rivals with thinly veiled barbs issued by its editor-in-chief/loudspeaker on prime time. And getting in on the act this week was none other than NDTV’s Barkha Dutt.

The action began on March 23, soon after the controversy over the Pakistan Day celebrations had begun. Times Now, among some other channels, in their race to be the first to break the latest developments, reported that Minister of State for Foreign Affairs General V K Singh would not be attending the Pakistan Day celebrations.

While NDTV reported the opposite. Time and circumstance proved NDTV correct and Dutt took the opportunity to rub it in the faces of rival channels with a series of tweets:

In keeping with the rules of news channel shadow boxing, Dutt refused to be drawn on who her tweet was aimed at, but the emphasis on “channel(s) that swear by hashtags” makes it fairly clear that her tweet was aimed at the hashtag obsessed Times Now that had been aggressively running reports on V K Singh and Pakistan Day celebrations, complete with the “PartyWithEnemy” hashtag.

Once NDTV was proven right, Times Now, did a volte face with Goswami choosing to go on the offensive against the government rather than admitting to the gaffe his channel had so proudly trumpeted the entire day. But Dutt wasn’t done.

After getting the V K Singh scoop right, Dutt carried on her battle against Times Now/Arnab on her prime-time programme “The Buck Stops Here”. This time though her point of criticism wasn’t Times Now’s factual correctness but rather the correctness of their editorial stance. While Times Now ran with #PartyWithEnemy and their usual noisy debate making this incident, like most others, a test of nationalism, Dutt went with the title “Nationalism or Noise”. Making sure that even if the debate itself was focussed on the story, her title would serve as a jab at the outrage on rival channels.

It wasn’t just debate names either, Dutt came out swinging, bringing up the “nationalism” stance of other channels as early as her intro, and questioned whether channels have “lost our intelligence in the age of hashtags”. It didn’t stop there either, Dutt peppered the debate with oblique references to “other channels” and their stance on the issue. She even made Times Now’s outcry over those attending the celebrations being anti-national personal. Dutt stated that she had been invited and would’ve gone barring work just to show that she rejected the event being made in to a test of nationalism.

At one point when Waheed-Ur-Rehman of the People’s Democratic Party blamed the outcry on the media’s narrative, Dutt went so far as to say: “We are taking on those channels, we are not in agreement with those channels.” Clearly, Dutt was in a mood to take on Times Now even lamenting that “diplomacy cannot have a reductionist media narrative”.

While her passive-aggressive attacks at Times Now may have been cathartic, it probably had little effect on Arnab who isn’t on Twitter to take cognisance of her jibes nor would he have been able to hear her over the usual din of the Newshour. One thing though is clear, we can expect more of these entertaining prime-time clashes. And naming names, calling out rivals for their shoddy work can be a way more effective regulatory mechanism than any government panel or advisory. Hoping the gloves come off soon, it’s in the best interest of viewers.