By B V Rao

As we approach the festival season, the television news media seems to have taken the lead in the discounts race. On sale at heavy, never-before rates of discount are accuracy, accountability and honesty.

The coverage of the recent disappearance and death of Andhra Chief Minister YS Rajashekhara Reddy demonstrated how some channels are not just economical with truth but unabashedly and unapologetically so. Last Thursday (Sept 3) Times Now lied through its teeth, making deliberately false claims that its reporter was “moments” away from the “the exact spot” where YSR was supposed to have crashed. (See post below, Lies, damned lies and breaking news on Times Now.)

But Times Now was not alone. Its Hindi twin of hyperbole, India TV, had set the stage by opening the discount sale overnight. On the night of September 2, when the search operation had actually stalled because of bad weather and nightfall, India TV declared unequivocally that the CM was alive and safe. It attributed the information to a “highly placed (uchch padast)” source in the CM’s office (or was it house, the channel was confused). It didn’t stop there. The same “highly placed” source, the channel claimed, had personally spoken to the CM on mobile. Twelve hours later (Thursday morning) it became clear that YSR had died 12 hours earlier. So India TV, through their “highly placed” source, was effectively communicating with the CM’s ghost! (Doubt: Was that a source or a “medium”? Idea for my next journalism school lecture: Are mediums reliable sources?)

I missed it when it was happening live on Wednesday night, but went back to the tapes a few days later. Riveting stuff:

The boo-boo begins at 9.16 pm with an announcement from the anchor and a toss to the managing editor of the channel, no less. As the screen starts screaming “CM ka surag mila (clue to CM’s whereabouts), the managing editor takes over on the phone: “We have been told by highly-placed sources that the Adivasis have spotted the helicopter and the CM. A search party will soon reach him. We have no idea of his condition but pakki khabar  hain (sure shot information) from our sources that he has been found.”

By 9.20 pm, he’s digging his heels in deeper, detailing the information chain that got India TV the hot exclusive. “The Adivasis saw him first, informed the forest department which in turn alerted the search party. The latter relayed the information to the CM’s house and that’s where India TV accessed it from.”

At this point the anchor chips in with an attempted disclaimer saying “nobody is ready to confirm or deny the information in Delhi or Hyderabad” but breaks off mid-sentence, almost hollering his guts out: “There’s information from the CM’s house…. the CM is fine… he is fully fine… CM’s office has clearly said CM is fine…search party will reach him soon…”

The managing editor comes back on (9.21 pm) with an even bigger announcement to put the issue of the CM’s safety above and beyond doubt. “The official who tipped us off has actually spoken to the CM…One minute ago we spoke to the official who spoke to the CM…India TV is giving the nation the good news it’s been waiting for…No official confirmation but we have spoken to the official who has spoken to the CM.”

By 9.45 pm the channel is digging a deeper hole. It is now talking about the chopper landing safely, as a natural corollary to finding the CM in good health. Just past 10 pm it is discussing if the CM will have to wait till sunrise to be rescued even as they cut live to Hyderabad where Finance Minister Rosaiah is addressing the media. One look at the proceedings there should have been enough to warn India TV that something is terribly, terribly wrong with their “national exclusive”.

Rosaiah is looking glum and totally unexcited. India TV should have immediately asked itself “why”. Why, if his CM was safe, was Rosaiah looking so glum? Was Rosaiah crestfallen because he realised that India TV had better sources in the CM’s house/office than him? Nah, Rosaiah was saying the search was still on; there has been no word on YSR’s whereabouts yet. He is talking in Telugu so you wouldn’t hang the anchors for not comprehending. But there’s what is called body language. They were too busy to read it, blundering away merrily on their ghost-hunt. That’s the second reason why you wouldn’t hang them: they were craning their necks into the noose ever so willingly.

It’s now 10.06 pm and the reporter in Hyderabad shows the first signs of concern because he understands Telugu. “The government is saying that they still have no news about the CM,” he says tentatively. For another six minutes the telecast goes on on similar lines but the energy and the hype is beginning to wane; indication that it is finally sinking in that they have goofed up big time, that they are looking for an honourable way out and are very confused in the interim.   

But, you have to hand it to India TV. In six short minutes, it finds a way out. The press conference has just killed their exclusive but India TV would twist that to make it look like the government is actually confirming what they now knew to be a wrong story. Here’s the slight of a journalistic hand: While trying to explain why the chopper’s ELT did not go off upon crashing, the state’s chief secretary has just said that experts are not ruling out the possibility of the chopper landing safely (in which case the ELT is not activated). India TV latches on to this straw in the wind, turns it around on its head and goes to town. “GOVERNMENT DISCLOSES: Search operation is on, Chopper has not crashed”. (Lie, the government said no such thing). The anchors are drumming up the “chopper has not crashed” line (which suggests to the viewer that perhaps India TV’s story is correct after all) without once bothering to explain why the search operation is still on if the Adivasis have spotted the chopper and contact has already been made with the CM.

Some might say that that was a stroke of genius but the channel was being too clever by half. Until now it was only guilty of putting out a wrong story. Mistakes happen all the time. Even this could have been put down to an error of judgement, unintelligent risk-taking or editorial adventurism. But now they were hiding a fact, or plainly lying to their viewers to make the story look good. The one thing that came out of the press conference was that neither had the CM been found nor had anybody spoken to him. But India TV chooses not to come clean and implicates itself further. It could have got away with charges of manslaughter of news, now this is first degree murder.

It is now about 10.18 pm, a full hour after the odious report was put out and the stench of the story is perhaps finally bothering the newsroom’s nostrils. Suddenly, the anchors shift attention to the weather; on how satellite pictures had predicted bad weather so why was the CM allowed to fly, etc, and plays a long recorded story on the weather! Then the anchors say let’s talk about the press conference and proceed to discuss the 41 pictures that the ISRO plane has taken. Diversionary tactics…you can almost hear the whirring of the brain as they try to figure how to wriggle out of the story.

There’s only one way; an unqualified apology to the viewers but, alas, that’s not India TV’s way. So at 10.26 pm the anchor makes one more attempt to falsify: “The government has made it clear that the chopper has not crashed. We will come back to the story after the break.”

Break over, story over. YSR is left to his means in the cruel jungle as the channel takes refuge in more familiar territory: love guru ka romance dekho, a canned show on Salman Khan’s upcoming flick to wipe out bad memories. The same anchor is now mouthing sweet nothings about Salman’s ladies and Priyanka’s whatever without once flinching!

Somewhere around 10.50 pm the channel blows up the last chance to come clean. The “breaking news” header below starts running what looks like a retraction but is actually another pathetic attempt to compound a lie. “INFORMTION FROM GOVT SOURCES: Adivasis gave wrong information…Adivasis mistook shining object for chopper…”

That’s a cheap one, putting the blame on faceless Adivasis. Just for a moment let’s suspend reason and believe it. Then what about India TV’s other claim? Their source in high places who spoke to the CM? Did he/she disappear? Or was it just an imaginary source having an imaginary conversation over an imaginary mobile phone with an already dead man? Was all that an Adivasi illusion as well?

 Ugh, I tell you…they can do strange things, these Adivasis!