Reporters Without Orders Ep 69: Congress boycott of news debates, ICC Cricket World Cup and more
Jun 5, 2019
39:46
In this episode of Reporters Without Orders, host Cherry Agarwal is joined by the usual gang, Newslaundry's Ayush Tiwari and Gaurav Sarkar. Before getting down to business, Cherry decides to make the guys play a quick game of rapid fire where they must quickly respond with the first thing that comes to mind when certain words are thrown at them. Gaurav and Ayush react to a volley of interesting words including Modi, blockchain, dogs, Lays, Himachal and more.Getting back to the podcast, Cherry asks what news pieces they spotted which were under-reported or over-reported. Gaurav points out the news of Ajit Doval being reappointed as the National Security Adviser for five years with a cabinet position. While he thinks it’s an important piece, it “didn’t deserve to eat up the Monday news cycle”. He thinks the report on the ostentatious expenditure made by parties during the elections was under-reported.Ayush thinks that the news of the Congress expelling Kerala politician AP Abdullakutty for praising Modi was under-reported. He remarks that this news “shows a trend of how bitter things are”. He also thinks there's too much coverage of individual incidents in the ongoing tiff between BJP supporters and Mamata Banerjee. The panel agrees that the level of political debate needs to improve.Ayush brings up the Congress's decision to not send spokespersons to news debates for a month. He discusses the possible motivations behind this “temporary non-engagement”. While the Congress seems to be fielding the narrative that they feel victimised by the media, there is speculation that this is a “cover story” and that the party is actually in a “maze of confusion” and will return when they can “reconfigure their views” on issues. Gaurav disagrees with the Congress's decision, saying, "You cannot back out of a game just because you lost.” Ayush agrees. Cherry asks the pair whether they would attend a debate if they knew it was rigged. Ayush replies: “As an individual, I wouldn’t. But as a party that claims to be the oldest in the subcontinent, I would.”The panel moves on to discussing the ongoing cricket world cup. They discuss the episode on corruption in cricket on the Patriot Act by Hasan Minhaj and Minhaj's assertions. At the end of a long discussion, Gaurav, seemingly exasperated, opposes the “political scrutiny” that threatens to ruin the sport for the listeners. Ayush retorts: “Sleepwalk your romance off a cliff.”This and a lot more. Tune in!
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