India's Worst Journalists - 2014PART 2 MUST READ

India's Worst Journalists - 2014 http://www.mediacrooks.com/2014/02/indias-worst-journalists-2014.html#.Uu0KwT1dUgm This is the third edition of India’s Worst Journalists poll; the Razzies for the worst in the business. The poll is conducted every two years (Previously 2010 and 2012). The term “journalists” is being used only technically as people have coined many other names for these unworthies: “Paid media”, “brokers” and even “pimps”. It’s an election year and most of these unworthies will be seen campaigning heavily for the non-performers and the corrupt. That the poll has grown in popularity can be measured by the fact that in 2010 it was just a panel of 7who picked the list, in 2012 there were 938 voters and this year there are 9429 voters. A word about those who exited from the 2012 list: Arnab Goswami may not have won too many back-scratching industry awards but has earned a lot of respect for his integrity if not for his style of TV shows. Vinod Sharma, the HT mouthpiece for Congress, has lost in prominence and therefore wasn’t considered worth the trouble. Vir Sanghvi too has lost all standing as a journalist and the former Radia-stenographer makes some back-door appearances on TV and nothing more. Shekhar Gupta didn’t make it to the winners list probably because he is not in the news anymore and there weren’t any sensational “Raisina hill” type blunders. This is probably because he had to give up overall management of Indian Express and retain his job as editorialist. Poll results and tabulation are appended to this post. Here are India’s Worst Journalists 2014 (2012 ranking in brackets after name): 4. Ashutosh (New entrant) One of the admirable things about Ashutosh is that he made his way up from humble beginnings to prominence. But as many will tell him, it’s not where you started but where you finished that counts. Right now Ashutosh has finished in absolute disgrace. He pretended to be a journalist and an editor while being a political activist for the AAP party. Ashutosh epitomises what most of his colleagues are: Political cronies in the garb of journalists. He had to be thrown out and he became a full time politician; scarf, cap ‘Malala look’ and all that. Having become a politician he now does a U-turn on many things he uttered as a closet-journalist. The pro-retail stand FDI turning into anti-FDI being the most prominent one. Somewhere, Ashutosh suffers an inferiority complex as well it seems. His muddled language often confuses but doesn’t fail to entertain with its stupidity. So much that Kiran Bedi held up Roget’s Thesaurus to him to help him understand the meaning of “anarchy”. In return he has promised to teach her a lesson. I’m willing to bet: failed journalist, failed politician. 3. Sagarika Ghose (2) She was again in the contest for the top slot. There isn’t much that Cacafonix hasn’t done which budding journalists should learn not to do. From Easter eggs on Good Friday to calling SC judges “Crackpot” you have heard it all from this C5M. Just two days back she was in a Sikh colony scavenging on their pain of the 1984 killings while her boss was calling the recent discussions on the topic a “nautanki”. It didn’t occur to Rajdeep that the nautanki was from his own channel in fake care for the victims. Sagarika was also a grand campaigner for the Congress in the December 2012 elections of Gujarat. She travelled through the ‘Muslim Corridor’ from Ahmedabad to Surat tasting “Communal” food and “Secular” food. Stuttering and stammering on her shows she also has this silly habit of repeating the last lines of her panellists for which Madhu Trehan of Newslaundry aptly calls it “Face the echo”. Sagarika is, of course, one of the greatest economists produced by CNN-IBN. You can tell by the stupid questions she keeps posting and repeating to RahulG and Modi. And, hold on tight to you chair, Rajdeep passes her as “Sense over Sensationalism”. 2. Barkha Dutt (1) Barkha finally falls off her top perch. She topped the pile in the last two editions but then BD has fallen of every perch she’s been on. One of the biggest blows to her must be that RahulG preferred Arnab Goswami to her for his first ever TV interview. All her years of carefully “evoluting” the Gandhi has ended in misery. She also campaigned for SheilaD by moderating her Google hangout; but SheilaD too lost as did Congress in Delhi. Overall BD has been far more subdued in the last year or so but hasn’t failed to maintain her bitchiness or her sense of grandeur about herself. She thrilled when Hartosh Bal was sacked from Open Magazine because he had spanked her badly over the Radiagate episode. She couldn’t help telling the world over and over again how she was reporting from the “North Lawns” of the White House. She screwed up over the “Dehati Aurat” incident and then claimed the story was being made “about her”. She didn’t forget to bitch about a reporter from TimesNow in her reporting from the “Keran Sector”. To add to her misery her frequent darlings have also been in trouble. Musharraf is more in jail than out. Imran Khan got a smackdown in the Pak elections. Poor thing! Nothing is going right for ‘Lady Iamthenews’. 1. Deepak Chaurasia (New entrant) India’s Worst Journalist 2014 by a good margin. DC who was earlier with Aajtak, then Doordarshan and now allegedly with India News is in the news for an alleged fake video. Many on SM have campaigned to vote for him on this poll because of a video which he is alleged to havedoctored and aired to tarnish someone’s reputation. They were trending him on Twitter with#ArrestCHORasia. This relates to sexual molestation case of a minor. It is for this reason that he not only makes a debut in this list but also makes it straight to No.1. There is something I remember about DC that most people may not. You see, DC is a brave man who had gone to report on the US-Iraq war of 2003. That takes some courage, doesn’t it? Oh yes, our DC was right in the middle of it and he was all dressed up in flap-jackets, helmet and all and reporting on the war. There was just one problem though. The war was in Iraq and DC was reporting from Kuwait, which wasn’t under any attack. Perhaps this comedian thinks news business is also a theatre. Although DC is one of the early reporters in the Hindi category he is clearly not fit for TV journalism. If he is at the top of this trash pile he quite well deserves the honour. Congratulations to all the winners and may they stand as a beacon for budding journalists on what not to do or be. It is fitting that we relive some funny, filthy and frivolous moments from some of these characters. Here’s a video compilation (6.30 mins. Some clips are from Newslaundry): Poll results below. Please note that total number of votes vs voters as also related percentages may not match because voters were allowed to choose multiple candidates in the poll.