“The dirty old man of Indian journalism”, Khushwant Singh, has used the occasion provided by M.J. Akbar‘s unceremonious exit from The Asian Age to deliver his own tablet on the state of Indian journalism, in the latest issue of Outlook:
“The scenario changed with the spread of television. People who saw events take place before their own eyes could not be bothered to read about them in the papers next morning. Fewer and fewer people read editorials.
Proprietors of newspapers sensed that editors were dispensable as they and their business managers could better meet the challenges posed by the electronic media. All it needed was to fill their pages with pictures of scantily-clad starlets or models, recipes for exotic foods, vintage wines, and gossip.
“The formula could be summed up in four Fs: films, fashion, food and fuck editors.
“The hard truth about Indian journalism is that proprietors matter, editors do not; money counts, talent does not.”
Read the full article: F*** all editors
Also read: Khushwant Singh on his last day at work at The Weekly
This is one more reason for India’s NGO movement to be free of any government largesse and be independent in their approach to be critical of their policy.
It is a crying shame that we learn about the removal of M. J. Akbar from magazines and not from our news papers. If they reported today, I certainly failed to see it. I actually read about this first from an email an NRI sent from the US. It was an article written in Dawn by Rahul Singh.
Do readers have the right to object to such an act? On paper we do have the right. But how many will exercise?
In short this is sad. But who has tears to shed when there are so many things that are wrong and crying for our urgent action.
The Mint had reported at least a week before the editor’s exit that M J Akbar and Venkattram Reddy are at loggerheads and that MJ is on his way out.
Actually I was wrong. Churumuri had an item on this topic on March 8th.
I am surprised to find that it had only one comment.
The sacking of editors hardly sets any river on fire. After all what are the editors doing? Just nothing. They are unable to lead the team or give directions to the juniors and their job is mostly confined to writing boring editorials, which is useful for people suffering from sleeplessness.
I agree with Kushwant Singh that the editors have hardly any work to do. They in times tocome may be replaced by the new category of people – editorial managers. He would be one of the many managers working for the news papers, like the those in charge of circulation, advertisement, market etec.
It is high time to bid good bye to the tribe of editors, which is getting extinct very fast, like the vanishing tribe of news editors