At a time when of much of what the media dishes out is what its subjects want to put out in the public realm, a scoop Q&A interview has become a bit of a prized trophy in journalism. Undiluted and straight from the horse’s mouth, it is a direct dialogue between the interviewee and the audience.
But can the interviewee make use of the situation and peddle scurrilous, malicious bazaar gossip to sell a book? Does the interviewer have no role to put the accuser to greater scrutiny other than acting as a stenographer? And is it OK for the media to air whatever charges an interviewee makes as long as it seems to be doing the ethically correct thing of getting a couple of talking heads to defend the “victim”?
These are the questions that arise from Karan Thapar’s interview with the former Pakistan foreign minister Gohar Ayub Khan, son of dictator General Ayub Khan, in which Gohar Khan indicates that India’s first Field Marshal Sam Manekshaw was a Pakistani spy, who sold India’s 1965 war plan to the enemy.
Journalistically, of course, the interview is an explosive scoop. However, merely because a loose-mouthed Pakistani says it on air and on camera, does it necessarily make it credible? And can it be repeated ad nauseam without giving a chance for the “accused” and ailing soldier to respond?
CNN-IBN, the channel which aired the interview, has tried to back-pedal by getting military officers and politicians to defend Manekshaw. The interviewer himself—who had recently conducted an interview with Lieutenant General J.F.R. Jacob who suggested that Manekshaw didn’t know how to fight—has sought to convey that he isn’t doing a hatchet job on behalf of the military establishment miffed at Manekshaw getting Rs 1.6 crore in back wages.
But can a 93-year-old man’s pride and prestige as the icon of Indian heroism, for liberating Bangladesh, be demolished in 93 seconds flat by a media seeking sensational headlines? Can the rest of the media repeat it endlessly without any compulsions or compunctions?
Is nothing sacred any longer?
Cross-posted on Sans Serif
churumuri 
By the current standards of television journalism, will CNN-IBN call Dilip Sardesai a match-fixer because several crores of unaccounted money were found in his residence in the mid-1990s as long as it gets a few of his former colleagues to vouch for his integrity? The answer to that question should tell us whether it is right or wrong on Sam Manekshaw.
Gohar Ayub Khan, not CNN-IBN, made the accusation, sure, but good journalism requires journalists to use their lenses and microscopes, and to separate the wheat from the chaff. Airing it just like that means they are only being what Indira Gandhi accused them of being during the Emergency: glorified stenographers.
We are a country desperately scarce of heroes. To treat Sam Bahadur who gave us India’s greatest moment of pride this way is a shame, not just on Gohar Ayub Khan, the son of a general, but on our media which, in the quest for a few TRPs, has given his accusation the oxygen that will help him sell a few hundred copies of his book.
LikeLike
cnn-ibn’s catch phrase ‘Whatever it takes’ needs to include ‘to rake a contrversy’… its just painful to see that channel, guess thats what happens when a media house has investors who need to be satisfied.
LikeLike
an irony because u were sucking up to cnn-ibn on the murthy episode and now playing the goody guy when defending the general ?
how often can u change ur colours ?
ur a mosquito waiting to suck blood out of the next victim . first nrn , now waiting for some other victim.
ur like a vulture trying to scavenge dead bodies on the battlefield.
LikeLike
These media only practise sensationalism, create hype and blow up out of proportions.. Credibility, decency and professionalism is thrown to the wind. Shameless creatures.
LikeLike
As I said in another posting about Sam, General Dwight David Eisenhower was a desk-bound army officer all his life and never had experience of fighting a battle let alone a war. His strategys the Supreme Allied Commander in WWII to defeat Hitler’s army in Europe was superb, starting from his approval of Normandy landings in 6th June 1944 on that day. If you believe that Khan Jr who is the son of that discredited dictator of Pakistan, you would believe anything.
As far as Sam is concerned I salute him for standing up to that leftist cynic and mere talker VKK Menon, who let the army and country down
LikeLike
Karan Thapar is a bad journalist. He should have put Gohar on the spot saying your previous allegations have been found to be fanciful; how can you explain this?…It is time for Karan Thapar to be sacked!
Ranga, I did not know that Sam crossed swords with that dirty kutty VKK Menon–somehow bureaucrats from that state including Pannicker have ended up screwing Indian interests–the latest being Shivshankar Menon and his state craft–which s almost like witchcraft!
LikeLike
Sam Maneckshaw is a hero only because the media made him to be one. True to a soldier, I don’t think he ever went around telling people he was a hero. Also true to a soldier, the man has some bombast in him when people did ask him. For me he is more of a hero because he stopped the disgraceful flight from Tezpur in 1962.
Besides, people are attributing motivations to Jacob when there is no such thing in the interview transcripts. The man has stated facts as plainly as they could be. They had a professional disagreement and Jacob has presented it as such. It is the media that is painting these facts with colours.
As for Gohar Ayub, the less said the better. He didn’t have much credibility when he was a foreign minister, and I don’t think he deserves any better now.
LikeLike
DB
VKK Menon was an interfering comrade and tried to micro-manage army and the generals and Sam having none of these was at the receiving end of the wrath of this tea-addicted faddist. Sam the superb soldier was quickly banished to desk and made to pick mundane chores. When VKK kutty who never had a proper job in his life (he was a Labour party local councillor in London, and then on became the High Commissioner for India in London- a huge leap from a mere talker to a diplomat thanks to Nehru misguided belief that only lefties achieve any thing) had a favourite hobby that is to insult generals. His MO was to ask generals to come and see him and make them wait for hours before giving his ‘darshan’. Sam would stand none of this nonsense.
When his Chinese comrades grabbed Tibet and Indian territories there was
such a furore that VKK kutty had no place to hide. Nehru was roasted by every one, and that was the time when politicians sank their differences , and VKK kutty was kicked out of his ministry and was disgraced. He was a mere talker.
Sam was very popular and when he passed through manasagangothri just after the Bangla war, he was mobbed by a large crowd chanting ‘Sam Bahdur’. I cannot countenance this hero being tarnished by a lying SOB whose daddy was the disgraced dictator .
LikeLike
Didn’t post earlier……
Sam Maneckshaw is a hero only because the media made him to be one. True to a soldier, I don’t think he ever went around telling people he was a hero. Also true to a soldier, the man has some bombast in him when people did ask him. For me he is more of a hero because he stopped the disgraceful flight from Tezpur in 1962.
Besides, people are attributing motivations to Jacob when there is no such thing in the interview transcripts. The man has stated facts as plainly as they could be. They had a professional disagreement and Jacob has presented it as such. It is the media that is painting these facts with colours.
As for Gohar Ayub, the less said the better. He didn’t have much credibility when he was a foreign minister, and I don’t think he deserves any better now.
LikeLike
GK3S
The land of the Pure is famous for its storytellers–the latest being Pervert Musafir (in the Line of Firing Blanks) and Gohar Ayub Khan. The 2007 Award for being the Chemical Ali of the year goes to Gohar Ayub Khan!
LikeLike
How Pakistan Lost the War in 1965
________________________________
Gohar had a little lamb
whose hair was white as snow
The lamb came from Sam
who was a Parsee man
and he was in uniform
And everywhere Gohar went
the lamb was sure to go
During the war of 65
the lamb said I know about it
them Indians’ plan
When Gohar heard this lamb
he thanked Allah
and offered the lamb
saying bismillah
Thereby hangs a tale
never disbelieve
however wild the tale
If only the Pakis knew
and not make the lamb stew
It would have been
curtains for Indian army men
LikeLike
I cannot forget how the Mysore crowd mobbed Sam Manekshaw when he passed through Manasagangothri one day after the Bangla war. That is an accolade for a hero from the people of Mysore.
LikeLike
If Churmuri can spoil an icon’s dignity (read NRN) in repeated blog posts, then why not this? Why Churumuri didn’t even consider the fact that playing the instrumental version of the national anthem is very much practised everywhere?
KP, or whoever editing these posts, please here is a very important suggestion. Although your controversial posts brings in lots of comments (which you consider similar to the rising TRP), the fact that people loved Churumuri because it was all about mysore and kannada. If you try to be someone else, then you’ll lose, and trust me many of my friends stopped reading churumuri for this reason, and many may follow.
If you’re true journalist, which your posts claim, then I expect this comment not to be screened.
LikeLike
Ranga,
Saar you must write your memoirs. You have a fascinating background and you must have seen and endured a lot in Mysore of the yore!
LikeLike
DB
Nice poem! The CNN-IBN interview was a travesty. For us the Mysoreans then, it was Sam who saw off Ayub the infidel. No other name registered in our gray cells. As I have said, Gen Patton who was a superb battle field tactician had to bow to superior strategist Gen Eisenhower, the desk-bound general. In IT terms, if Jacob was a programmer, Sam was the software project leader. I know from my experience which is onerous.
LikeLike
Thank you, Ranga. A great analogy on Sam the project leader and Jacob the programmer:)
You mean to say, Yahya Khan was routed in 1971.
LikeLike
exactly the forum to ask.
so KP. everybody else is accountable to press andre, to whom is the press accountable to? 4 people with a zillion rupees employ 12 indoctrinated people and their opinion becomes the agenda for public discourse?
sumne heLodasThe, Outllook, Today, Hindu, IE, Pioneer, IBN, NDTV ella asThe.. aourde rajya, aourde vaakya. For example, SS ge iddaddu iddhange baryo dammidya? VM opthaana? agenda biTTu bareeli noDoNa. yen maha?
idealogy beku, consistency beku. naavu manushyaru namage consistency saadhyailla antha oppkoLLi noDoNa. c’mon man, honestly are these people so sold that realities don’t perturb them?
LikeLike
Most of these channels based out of Delhi/Mumbai play to the galleries in UP, Bihar, Gujarat, etc. Being private channels chasing TRPs, they can survive only if they serve fare that appeals to the palate of their target market. Unfortunately this doesn’t go down all to well down under because of differences in culture and attitude. Solution: A strong English media channel based out of Bangalore with a strong south indian focus.
LikeLike
Could this be a carry over of some issue Karan Thapar’s dad had with Sam when Gen. Thapar was the Chief?
LikeLike