Two major controversies, including ‘Radia Tapes’ case and ‘Note for Vote’ scam, undermined and demolished the credibility of traditional media and brewed public suspicion on the same, Shashi Shekhar, an author and former Chief Executive Officer of Prasar Bharti, said.
The ‘Radia Tapes’ controversy pertains to the leak of audio tapes, which allegedly had telephonic conversations between corporate lobbyist Niira Radia, and many senior politicians, journalists, industrialists, and government officials, taped by the Income Tax Department in 2008-09. After the tapes were leaked and shown on television channels, it led to allegations of misconduct by some media houses and served as a precursor to the 2G scam, prompting an investigation by the CBI into the matter.
In an exclusive interview with ANI, Shashi Shekhar said, “There was a process of change. In 2004, technology was too early and didn’t play much of a role. But, 2009 was the first time, blogging made an appearance in the political trail. You had bloggers for LK Advani, and you had friendsofbjp.org. So, already there were seeds (of technology) in the 2009 elections. That was not the ‘right election’ for all this to make a difference, but there was a difference.”
Shekhar further spoke about the ‘Radia Tapes’ episode and the ‘Note-for-Vote’ scam, stating that these controversies undermined and demolished the credibility of the big names of the traditional media.
“What happened after 2009, the ‘Radia Tapes’ I think went a long way in undermining or demolishing the credibility of the so-called traditional bigwigs who monopolised prime time. I recall when the ‘Note for Vote’ scam and the confidence vote in Parliament. I recall watching how the prime-time anchors got excited when the votes were tallied in the Lok Sabha,” he said.
The former Prasar Bharti CEO added, “This just made it so apparent that there was no semblance of neutrality, they were completely biased. Then you had this whole Radia Tapes incident, which kind of confirmed that everyone all along suspected what was going on with media in Delhi.”
The cash-for-vote scam pertains to the BJP MPs displaying wads of currency notes in the Parliament, alleging that they were bribed to save the UPA government during the trust vote in Lok Sabha in 2008 after the Left Front withdrew its support over the issue of the Indo-US nuclear deal.
The author and columnist further said that this made a lot of difference as the traditional media stood discredited.
“I think that made a huge difference and hence, by 2013 when social media had already gained traction. Twitter, especially after the 2008 terrorist attack, kind of became popular in India. It just grew leaps and bounds. YouTube live streaming took off…So, all of these came together, and that’s what made the difference,” Shekhar added.
