Dear Arnab,
I used to be a regular viewer
of your channel and especially the prime time program from 9 pm to almost 11 pm. However,
for several months now I have stopped watching your these farcical
“debates” as no person with some knowledge of events, logic, facts and
civilized public behaviour can tolerate your sheer arrogance and cocky behaviour. Your
method and style of questioning your panelists
is not only insulting, intimidating and
utterly condescending but also against any civilized and democratic norms. You constantly interrupt the panelists, refuse to shut up, don’t allow
them to present their perspective and thrust your own views on them as well as
on the viewers of your program by intimidation and threat. You sit in your
chair for those couple of hours just to
sadistically pour scorn, derision and sarcasm on the hapless panelists, who disagree with you or
have a different view point knowing very well that most of them cannot retaliate. I am writing this open letter to you as this is the only way I can
express my opinion uninterrupted,
without intimidation, threat and abuse from you.
Arnab, you must be
hallucinating that you deserve a Pulitzer Prize or some other similar awards
due to your this digital version of Kangaroo Court better deserves to be referred
to as “Noisy Hour”. Just because you have taken up the job of a
journalist, you have no right to proclaim that you represent “people’s
voice”, ask questions on behalf of the
people and demand answers. Have you ever
asked the people you claim to represent,
if they approve of your behaviour and actions? A journalist’s duty is to
report the events and let people judge
what or who is right and what or who is wrong. But Lord Goswami, your intention of presenting a story in your channel
is to set an agenda by gagging the opinion of those who disagree with you. Your
focus is less on journalism and more on influencing or rather manipulating opinion by sensationalising to earn TRP. You
go as far as possible to influence opinion and set agenda. You come into your
“Noisy Hour” every evening with your pre-set views and personal agenda, which you
thrust on all the panelists and manipulate the direction
and outcome of the debate. The purpose
of any debate should be to get all sides of the story but in your debates all the panelists having an opposite view to yours
are cowed and overpowered by your interruptions and self-righteous attitude. You
even don’t hesitate to criticize your panelists having a different view than yours by saying that they "should be ashamed
for their views". You consider that only you are right in every issue, claim to speak for the people and demand answer on behalf of the people. You ask
questions, flaunt unverified facts and
gag those who wants to answer with counter facts and logic. The panelists come to your show to express
their views and the least you can do is to allow them to express their opinion,
put forward their facts & logic and
treat their views with a little respect even if they are wrong sometime. But your approach proves that you don’t
believe in any other view point other than your own, believe only your own
unverified data & proofs, argue with prejudice and scuttle all independent thoughts and
beliefs of anybody who doesn’t agree with you by deriding them and overpowering them with interruptions and self-righteous
attitude. Journalism says that a moderator in a debate should be a facilitator
of all the various views and logic, shouldn’t take sides or becomes party to
the discussion. But for you Arnab - the self-appointed Judge, Jury and Executioner - no matter what
the issue before you, you are always in a belligerent mood, provoking and
unnerving your guests. Your questions and responses are always filled with
derision and an inexplicable irrelevant anger.
You choose and focus on a new issue every evening
for your "Noise Hour" on the
basis of the amount of media rating it can fetch and are laid on the foundation
of a perfunctory research. You are always a party to the discussion and brings
with you what you perceive as the correct 'notion'. You start your show with your own perceived
correct ‘notion’, give a title to it appropriately and pre-determine the verdict undermining the reason to have the
debate. At the end of the discussion - Lord Arnab, you declare your judgement on the chosen issue
and convict the people involved in it without any corroboration or validation. You
believe that people should come on your
show to confess and hence you try repeatedly to coerce your “under trials”
to confess to something by bullying,
intimidation and threat. In you there is
neither subtlety nor polite firmness that one would expect from a News Presenter and Moderator. Instead, what we
see from you is constant diatribe of invective, insult, intimidation, sarcasm, and humiliating
below-the-belt personal comments. That even the most basic checks and balances
are not in place and inspite of that you
behave as if you are above all laws and regulations, were evident from the Rs.
100 Cr. defamation case that Justice Sawant slapped on your channel and won. Have you also forgotten the #ShameOnTimesNow
episode or you still consider that it was a handiwork of your competitors in
collusion with some political forces? But
still you have neither learnt your lessons nor taken any corrective measures. I wish someone with the courage and
conviction of Justice Sawant slaps
another case for manipulating and distorting facts on you and you get some time
to introspect by cooling your arrogance and false sense of self-righteous
attitude in a prison cell.
Sorry Arnab, what you are pretending to do is not
journalism. True journalism is not about thrusting 'your views' as gospel truth on the people but presenting correct information and all
sides of the story for the people to
decide and judge. If you don’t change your behaviour or attitude, the day is
not far when someone will be compelled to use your tactics in a different form
and degree on you to show you reasons. That day, you won’t be even able to cry
foul of victimhood and there won’t be anyone left to sympathize with you.
Yours Truly,
A viewer of yours who demands
an answer
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