Vijaita Singh, a journalist at The Hindu who is known to have a complicated relationship with the truth, has landed herself in troubled waters yet again. This time, it’s over her tweet on Doordarshan for carrying an advertisement of PayTM. It appears she doesn’t understand something as basic as the difference between revenue and profit.
public news broadcaster DD News promoting PayTM. pic.twitter.com/3HD01Wcxly
— vijaita singh (@vijaita) October 3, 2019
People pointed out to her that it was obviously a paid advertisement but that didn’t stop Vijaita from sticking to her flawed logic.
Unusual, DD News is not a profit making body.
— vijaita singh (@vijaita) October 3, 2019
It’s not unusual for a government-owned channel to run paid advertisements. “It’s not a profit making body,” is not a valid reason for why it should be a loss-making body. It’s only natural that the government would want to recover the costs that have been invested in the channel by running paid advertisements. However, all of this appears to make too much sense for Vijaita Singh to fathom.
Unsurprisingly, her tweet has attracted much ridicule from people on social media and rightly so.
These are India’s top journalists. Don’t know the difference between revenue and profit. The same people write long articles on economy, banking, finance. ? pic.twitter.com/FHfIoxbcy0
— Spaminder Bharti (@attomeybharti) October 3, 2019
This exchange is a perfect example to showcase the sheer ignorance that’s rampant among Indian journalists. DD shows a lot of ads. It need not be profit making but how daft you have to be to think it’s giving free publicity to PayTM? pic.twitter.com/TTvZ7bM6gy
— Ram (@ramprasad_c) October 3, 2019
What is promoting in this? Paytm is advertising it’s brand on DD. Do you have any problem? Oh, you work for the Indian edition of People’s Daily of China. How dumb of me not to check your profile, first.
— Suresh Kochattil (@kochattil) October 3, 2019
She was also oblivious to the fact that product placement like the PayTM sticker on the laptop of Doordarshan news anchor is also form of advertising.
Not the ad. But the product placement on home screen.
— vijaita singh (@vijaita) October 3, 2019
A Twitter user even pointed out to her that the laptop sticker is one of the forms of ‘non-FCT (free commercial time) advertising options available to broadcasters.
Pity… nobody told you this despite working with a media house. And FYI the salary you get every month comes from the ads which are printed in your newspaper because subscription amount of newspaper isjust 20-25% of revenue generated by newspapers.
— Mohan Gautam (@anpadhganwar) October 3, 2019
While regular advertising works during commercial breaks, such stickers on laptops work as ‘non-FCT’ advertisement and are usually at premium.
At one point she even said how this is conflict of interest since PayTM is direct competition to BHIM UPI app.
Raising funds is fine, isn’t there a conflict of interest when Govt has its own payment platforms like Bhim UPI?
— vijaita singh (@vijaita) October 3, 2019
Clearly, The Hindu ‘journalists’ do not seem quite well-versed with the concept of competition and free market. If BHIM UPI pays the money, even it could have its logo on the laptops of Doordarshan news anchors.op
Today’s episode is another feather in Vijaita Singh’s stellar journalism career thus far. In the past, she has peddled misleading information on Jammu & Kashmir following the abrogation of Article 370 which attracted a strong condemnation by a Police Officer from the state.
Vijaita Singh also came to the defense of Pallava Bagla after his atrocious behaviour with ISRO scientists after the elite space org lost touch with Vikram Lander of Chandrayaan-2. She had attempted then to shift the blame to those who were legitimately criticizing his vile conduct.
Vijaita Singh has also spread Fake News about OpIndia.com in the past. Amusingly enough, it was right after The Hindu joined hands with the BBC to combat Fake News.
