Barkha Dutt audio tapes brokering a deal b/w Cong and DMK!

[ravishingravi]

"This particular program that is screening right now.. Was it supposed to be some sort of Barkha-cleaning-up-the-air thingy?" ^yup, ended up polluting it even more. check out the stream from the link posted.

[Aaku]

Did he not say 'the hoardings are NOT pretty' ? :hehe:

[littlemaster1982]

"The Buckwas Stops Here"

:hysterical: :hysterical: :hysterical:

[ravishingravi]

"The Buckwas Stops Here"

:hysterical::hysterical:

[King Tendulkar]

Is there no one going to post to support Mayawatis love child?

[beetle]

I never liked Barkha Dutt.Not since the daysof the Kargil coverage with led to troops getting fired at.She never has acknowledged it or opologised for it.Her debates are monopolised by her and she is a bully who manipulates people.Good she got this treatment .While I agreed with the other members of the panel...unlike most here I found that manu guy quite immature. He could have asked a few more questions...infact to me he seemed to be blocking and turned it into a personal agenda. As for the Tata tapes... I really don't see any problem there.Even if they were lobbying against Maran ...can you really blame them.The man is a rabid enemy of ratan tata for not giving him part of tata sky.The man is a snake .Tatas don't bribe and are also expectd to bear with these bastards who do their best to disadvantage them.How are they expected to do business ? The only problem is their employing someone like Radia and did they know the extent of her involvement in all this. The b*tch was flirting with him...:girl_mad:

[Gunner_Mania]

for anybody who missed it http://www.ndtv.com/video/player/news/barkha-dutt-other-editors-on-radia-tapes-controversy/178964

[Ram]

I saw the whole programme on youtube last night. Just a few observations; I didnt get to hear all of the tapes of her conversations with Nira Radia, but from the one snippet they did play during the program, it is pretty clear that she wasnt playing the 'innocent journo just trying to fish for some information' as she repeatedly claimed. It was obvious that she was an active player in the whole game, at least from what the conversations lead us to believe. Now, how much influence she ultimately actually had in the ministerial posts is a completely different matter, but the fact that she ‘TRIED’ play an active role, cannot be denied. She repeatedly says ‘Well, I didn’t actually talk any of the Cong-DMK people.. You could have confirmed that with me before going public with the story..’. Well, how do you know she’s saying the truth? In the tapes itself, when Radia asks her whether she spoke to Azad, she replies in the affirmative. But when one of the editors bought that up, she said she simply lied to Raida to play along. So, if she lied to Radia, who’s to say she’s telling the truth now? Her constant tactic throughout the programme was to cast aspersions on the coverage of the whole episode by Open magazine, by questioning their judgement of doing the story, without getting in touch with her even once.. ‘We at, NDTV, would not have posted that raw footage..’ is her claim.. First of all, I am not even sure that is true. When ex-BJP President Bangaru Laxman (I think), was caught by Tehelka taking bribes, I am pretty sure NDTV aired that footage at that time. Plus, she keeps referring to the conversations as ‘raw footage’, as though they’re some CGI work. It was her her own words, in her own voice. So if Manu Joseph has every right to print them without getting touch her. Its not as though an anonymous source called up Joseph and told him Barkha was mediating in this whole episode and he simply ran that story. That is bad journalism, this is not. Most importantly, she tried to brush away all allegations leveled against her as a mere ‘error of judgement’.. Huh, what? As Manu said, here you have, a corporate PR for two of the BIGGEST telecom companies, trying to influence multiple cabinet berths, including the one for Telecommunications and Barkha thought nothing was amiss? Did she not see the obvious conflict of interest there? Manu was right, the Source IS the story, not just the content of the conversations. I’ve had reasonable respect for Barkha as a journalist. But there’s no way you can take her political reportings seriously any more. When she stopped being a merely a journalist and starts mediating on behalf of people, how could we be assured that her reportings on the people with whom she has private dealings with, will be fair and balanced? Of course, it is ludicrous to say that she had a hand in the entire 2g scam. She probably may have had a hand in the re-appointment of A.Raja, but it will dishonest of the highest degree to claim that she partook in the actual 2G scam.

[urbestfriend]

Prabhu chawla, another who get caught, is now giving lecture about corruption in "headlines today" now...What a tool :mad:

[Ram]

My inference of the situation is, Barkha got a little carried away with this whole prospect of playing the ‘messenger’ role between the different parties, especially on an issue as important as the appointment of ministerial berths. She obviously saw it as an excellent opportunity to increase her profile in the Indian political circles and jumped on it. Even a 2 year old girl would know that what she was atleast attempting to doing then far exceeded the boundaries of normal journalist, but it is clear she shelved her journalist side and put on the mediator cloak. After all, which journalist does not want to be part of such massive thing? She’s trying to hide behind all this with the usual cliché of ‘error of judgment..’. That simply doesn’t sound like even a remotely believable argument. Ultimately, she probably had very little say in who got what berths, but that is not the point. She tried to, which is the whole story.

[urbestfriend]

Headlines today showing Radia tapes of Barkha and Vir. Where is Prabhu's tapes? They're not even mentioning Prabhu's name..!

[coffee_rules]

The basic question, why would journos get involved in ministerial formations unless they are involved with the party that has formed the govt? It exposes this fact and her credibility as a journo as no value now. Stupid freak.

[seedhi]

As Arun Shourie put is so well - it is incredible to believe Barkha Dutt that she was only trying to "string" Niira Radia along. As if a person of the calibre, influence and reach as Niira Radia can be strung along so easily by an airhead like Barkha. She would know in a jiffy if the messages that Barkha promised to convey to the Congress were not done so. Now the big question is whether she got some cut or a profit out of this dalaling between NR/DMK and the Congress.

[Sachin=GOD]

Headlines today showing Radia tapes of Barkha and Vir. Where is Prabhu's tapes? They're not even mentioning Prabhu's name..!

forget about Prabhu, they're missing some very,very important names........the tapes that have been released are for 120 conversations and contain mostly conversations with journalists but actually there were around 5000 tapes and a majority of them with big politicians and all of them have been conveniientl;y swept under the carpet and the focus has been only on 2-3 famous journalists while the major people involved have got away.

[coffee_rules]

Just heard Arun Shourie's interview. talk about clarity in thought..he is so good in articulating what we all know so well.. Another piece from 'Open': http://openthemagazine.com/article/voices/this-is-not-journalism-as-we-know-it

What Arnab is stating is not about an individual editor or a single news anchor; it is about upholding the basic norms of journalism. If effective journalism required these compromises, Arnab would hardly be arguing against them in an internal mail. The code of ethics framed by the News Broadcasters Association, which includes NDTV, CNN-IBN and Times Now, says, ‘The underlying principle that news channels abide by is that the intrusion of the private spaces, records, transcripts, telephone conversations and any other material will not be for salacious interest, but only when warranted in the public interest.’ This applies not only to the transcripts Open carried, but also to this internal mail. There cannot be any possible reason for NDTV and Hindustan Times to disagree with Arnab, even if, like him, they cannot say so in public. Arnab seems to suggest that if Barkha and Vir had done what they did while working for him, he would have come down hard on them. So what stops NDTV and Hindustan Times?

[asterix]

I saw the whole programme on youtube last night. Just a few observations; I didnt get to hear all of the tapes of her conversations with Nira Radia, but from the one snippet they did play during the program, it is pretty clear that she wasnt playing the 'innocent journo just trying to fish for some information' as she repeatedly claimed. It was obvious that she was an active player in the whole game, at least from what the conversations lead us to believe. Now, how much influence she ultimately actually had in the ministerial posts is a completely different matter, but the fact that she ‘TRIED’ play an active role, cannot be denied. She repeatedly says ‘Well, I didn’t actually talk any of the Cong-DMK people.. You could have confirmed that with me before going public with the story..’. Well, how do you know she’s saying the truth? In the tapes itself, when Radia asks her whether she spoke to Azad, she replies in the affirmative. But when one of the editors bought that up, she said she simply lied to Raida to play along. So, if she lied to Radia, who’s to say she’s telling the truth now? Her constant tactic throughout the programme was to cast aspersions on the coverage of the whole episode by Open magazine, by questioning their judgement of doing the story, without getting in touch with her even once.. ‘We at, NDTV, would not have posted that raw footage..’ is her claim.. First of all, I am not even sure that is true. When ex-BJP President Bangaru Laxman (I think), was caught by Tehelka taking bribes, I am pretty sure NDTV aired that footage at that time. Plus, she keeps referring to the conversations as ‘raw footage’, as though they’re some CGI work. It was her her own words, in her own voice. So if Manu Joseph has every right to print them without getting touch her. Its not as though an anonymous source called up Joseph and told him Barkha was mediating in this whole episode and he simply ran that story. That is bad journalism, this is not. Most importantly, she tried to brush away all allegations leveled against her as a mere ‘error of judgement’.. Huh, what? As Manu said, here you have, a corporate PR for two of the BIGGEST telecom companies, trying to influence multiple cabinet berths, including the one for Telecommunications and Barkha thought nothing was amiss? Did she not see the obvious conflict of interest there? Manu was right, the Source IS the story, not just the content of the conversations. I’ve had reasonable respect for Barkha as a journalist. But there’s no way you can take her political reportings seriously any more. When she stopped being a merely a journalist and starts mediating on behalf of people, how could we be assured that her reportings on the people with whom she has private dealings with, will be fair and balanced? Of course, it is ludicrous to say that she had a hand in the entire 2g scam. She probably may have had a hand in the re-appointment of A.Raja, but it will dishonest of the highest degree to claim that she partook in the actual 2G scam.

Excellent analysis, Morris..But I disagree that these power brokers had nothing to do with the actual scam. IMO this scam was pre-planned by DMK and some corporate houses, just like Kalmadi and company, Delhi govt., organisations and contrators had planned meticulously since the award of CWG to Delhi. Big scams needs meticulous planning and DMK clamouring for key cabinet berths and certain corporate houses wishing certain DMK ministers to be in certain key Cabinet posts using power brokers and media lobby was all pre-planned and everybody knew about the share of moolah they'll corner. I hope Supreme court bring all the involved parties, brokers, media persons to task..

[Ram]

Excellent analysis, Morris..But I disagree that these power brokers had nothing to do with the actual scam. IMO this scam was pre-planned by DMK and some corporate houses, just like Kalmadi and company, Delhi govt., organisations and contrators had planned meticulously since the award of CWG to Delhi. Big scams needs meticulous planning and DMK clamouring for key cabinet berths and certain corporate houses wishing certain DMK ministers to be in certain key Cabinet posts using power brokers and media lobby was all pre-planned and everybody knew about the share of moolah they'll corner. I hope Supreme court bring all the involved parties, brokers, media persons to task..

Sure, the push for appointing A.Raja to the post of Telecom minister could very well have been done with an eye on the 2G auctions, but that is not to suggest that Barkha was also a co-mastermind in all that conspiracy. From the tapes, it seems like she’s just happy to be part of the whole charade, sort of ‘OMG, I am actually part of the negotiations that can clinch cabinet berths..’ sorta feeling and not ‘Oh so if we put this guy here, we will get that benefit then..’. Even otherwise, as an influential individual in New Delhi’s political circles, Barkha can do whatever she wants and if that includes negotiating on behalf of political parties, so be it. Of course, the casualty of all this is that credibility of her ‘News’ coverage, especially her political coverage. It is hard to trust her opinion on people, especially when it is pretty clear that she has a vested interest in how those people do.

[asterix]

Sure, the push for appointing A.Raja to the post of Telecom minister could very well have been done with an eye on the 2G auctions, but that is not to suggest that Barkha was also a co-mastermind in all that conspiracy. From the tapes, it seems like she’s just happy to be part of the whole charade, sort of ‘OMG, I am actually part of the negotiations that can clinch cabinet berths..’ sorta feeling and not ‘Oh so if we put this guy here, we will get that benefit then..’. Even otherwise, as an influential individual in New Delhi’s political circles, Barkha can do whatever she wants and if that includes negotiating on behalf of political parties, so be it. Of course, the casualty of all this is that credibility of her ‘News’ coverage, especially her political coverage. It is hard to trust her opinion on people, especially when it is pretty clear that she has a vested interest in how those people do.

I think Barkha was not acting on her own. The NDTV governing board must've been fully aware of these brokering and she might have been getting instructions from the top (Pronnoy Roy?). I think NDTV and it's key operators must've got large sums of kickbacks..

[Ram]

Of course, lost in all this he said-she said is the bigger, even more sadder story.. the story of insitutionalized horse-trading and gutter class tactics that goes in Indian politics, every time a govt. is formed. The story is not that a News Journalist tried to mediate b/w political parties (who wouldnt do it? After all, its a total win-win for you), but the fact that she, or for that matter a Corporate PR, was even allowed to mediate. We have our ministers appointed not by merit, but by pure black-mail. DMK threatens to stay out of the govt. if they don’t get the berths they want, Mamta will simply explode if she doesn’t get Railways, Sharad Pawar will implode if he doesn’t get Agricultural ministry.. What sort of ridiculous game is this? But somehow, this whole episode has been ‘OMG Barkha, what have you done…’ when it should have been ‘OMG, our politics is so effed up’. It shouldn’t be Barkha Dutt who should be defending herself right now, but guys like Karunanidhi, who threatened the stability of our entire federal govt, unless his entire progeny, friends, relatives and other random people he met over the years were made central ministers.

[Ram]

I think Barkha was not acting on her own. The NDTV governing board must've been fully aware of these brokering and she might have been getting instructions from the top (Pronnoy Roy?). I think NDTV and it's key operators must've got large sums of kickbacks..

See now you’re just speculating (it could be true, but we never know). We can only make our conclusions based on what already know and not what might have happened. But yes, it would be weird if the groups Senior Editor were to be acting on her own, on such a significant issue. Maybe the rest of the NDTV top-brass were not actively colluding in the whole thing, but surely, they must have atleast known what was happening all along.