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Barkha Dutt compares US and Indian media, Twitterati ‘help’ her with details

Controversial journalist Barkha Dutt, who recently quit 24-hours English news channel NDTV under unclear circumstances, today posted a message on micro-blogging site Twitter comparing the US and Indian media, and hinting that the media in India worked under political pressure:


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False equivalences are the hallmark of any “liberal” commentator and through this tweet, Barkha Dutt came up with another one.

First of all, there is no “Trump vs Media” like situation in India. If there were any, we would not have seen ruling BJP leaders running to the NDTV studios every now and then to give exclusive interviews to Barkha herself. Funnily, today itself another NDTV journalist claimed that a BJP minister “confided” to her some political thoughts. Will anyone from Trump’s team confide anything to a NYT or CNN journalist? What comparison Barkha was then drawing?

The only Indian politician who openly attacks media like Trump does, is Arvind Kejriwal, who called Shekhar Gupta – who has mysterious professional relationship with Barkha Dutt – a dalaal (pimp) and who has attacked other journalists like Arnab Goswami on other occasions, but Kejriwal remains a favourite of most of the Indian media. So the comparison by Barkha appeared odd.

The second part of the tweet about politicians being able to shut down information was even more odd. Then shouldn’t she disclose this attack on transparency and information by the political class? Which politician shut down what information and which event(s) she was referring to?

With such questions on their minds, many Twitter users took to direct responses and sarcastic comments to point to Barkha where she was erring.

Some wondered why she did not speak out if there was any political pressure on NDTV?


But pressure? Really? When one is free to report like this?


As correctly pointed out in this tweet, it is not “Politicians vs Media” in India, but “People vs Media” and it had started with one blogger getting legal notice from Barkha Dutt:


How can people trust a media that promotes abusive trolls who fake interviews?


Well, if we are comparing US and Indian media, how about this comparison?


Some pointed out the inherent irony in Barkha’s tweet:


Maybe Indian media is indeed not free, they are…


Or this is the freedom that media wants?


Pro tip: Barkha Dutt can reject all of the above as “trolling” and continue with her false equivalences. No one can ever take that freedom away.

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OpIndia Staff
OpIndia Staffhttps://www.opindia.com
Staff reporter at OpIndia

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