Reporters Without Orders Ep 363: Outlook magazine’s decline, state of political comedy

This week, host Pratyush Deep is joined by Newslaundry’s Priyanka Ishwari and The Quint’s Tanishka Sodhi.

They talk about their story on Outlook’s transformation from a news magazine that once reported hard-hitting stories and exposed some of India’s biggest scandals to a magazine that focuses more on features, poetry now. 

Priyanka says several former Outlook journalists haven’t read the magazine in ages “because they don’t think it makes any noise anymore”. 

Noting that Outlook hadn’t been doing great work after Vinod Mehta’s editorship ended in 2015, Tanishka says under its current editor, Chinki Sinha, the magazine has taken even a “more unpleasant turn”.

She also talks about her interview with comedian Daniel Fernandes in the wake of the Kunal Kamra controversy. She notes that even though the comedy landscape is booming, space for political comedy is shrinking because “people are scared”.

Tune in.

Timecodes

00:00:00 – Introduction

00:01:24 – Outlook’s vanishing edge

00:23:15 – State of political comedy 

00:33:28 – Recommendations

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Produced and edited by Saif Ali Ekram, recorded by Anil Kumar.

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