On December 21, within hours after uploading an unedited version of an interview with Australian sociologist Dr Salvatore Babones, the propaganda news portal Newslaundry sneakily made it private on its YouTube channel. The 1-hour 35-minute interview will be available only for the Newslaundry subscribers in an edited version.
Notably, Dr Babones’s praises for India and Modi government on several platforms had raised the hackles of ‘liberals’. When Newslaundry uploaded the interview teaser, Dr Babones slammed them for sharing ‘aggressively edited clips’ and challenged them to upload the unedited version, which they did on YouTube. However, it was made private minutes after Babones posted the link on his Twitter page.
In the interview titled ‘Salvatore Babones on the failings of Indian intellectuals’, Dr Babones accused the co-founder of Newslaundry, Abhinandan Sekhri, of setting up traps and calling him names. Questioning Sekhri’s journalistic approach, Dr Babones called him an “unprofessional interviewer”.
Interestingly, when Dr Babones challenged Newslaundry to upload a full unedited interview, Sekhri said, “As I told you, all our interviews are uploaded unedited, professor. This one will be no different. These calls for “courage” are childish.” However, the video was gone from NL’s YouTube channel in less than an hour.
Dr Babones had shared its link on his Twitter account earlier today, but within an hour of his tweet, Newsalaundry turned the video private.
Like I told you, all our interviews are uploaded unedited professor. This one will be no different. These calls for “courage” are childish.
— Abhinandan Sekhri (@AbhinandanSekhr) December 21, 2022
After the video was made private, Dr Babones said, “Hi All. With apologies, Abhinandan has now set my interview to “private”. But if any of you subscribe to Newslaundry, please DM me. You can send me the unlisted link, and I’ll publish it on Twitter every time they update it. Or any other Newslaundry video.”
Hi All. With apologies, @AbhinandanSekhr has now set my interview to “private”. But if any of you happen to subscribe to @newslaundry, please DM me. You can send me the unlisted link, and I’ll publish it on Twitter every time they update it. Or any other Newslaundry video.
— Salvatore Babones (@sbabones) December 21, 2022
A Twitter user asked if he had an unedited version of the video, to which Dr Babones said he would not upload it and added, “They [Newslaundry] are. Unedited and in full.”
No, I’m not going to post it. They are. Unedited and in full.
— Salvatore Babones (@sbabones) December 21, 2022
Furthermore, Babones also shared that his subscription to Newslaundry has ended. “Aww … Newslaundry is sad to see me go! Anyone who is unfortunate enough to have an @Newslaundry subscription, please DM me with some unlisted YouTube video links. Oh, and @AbhinandanSekhr, please do publish the full, UNEDITED Zoom recording of my interview. Thanks and goodnight!” he tweeted.
Aww … Newslaundry is sad to see me go! Anyone who is unfortunate enough to have an @Newslaundry subcription, please DM me with some unlisted YouTube video links. Oh, and @AbhinandanSekhr, please do publish the full, UNEDITED Zoom recording of my interview. Thanks and goodnight! pic.twitter.com/Orp4htPT6Y
— Salvatore Babones (@sbabones) December 21, 2022
Dr Salvatore Babones is an Australian socialist who recently created a buzz in India after his videos from India Today conclave went viral. Salvatore had cornered India’s ‘intellectual’ class and said that they were probably losing their place in society. He also lauded India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi and said, “The personality of Modi is an affront to India’s intellectual class. It has brought them to a new fever pitch of anger over the loss of their place in society”.
Dr Salvatore had said that India is being wrongly portrayed as a fascist state by the global media, which is affecting its image internationally. He also cornered the left-liberal ecosystem in India who usually keeps on targeting the BJP-led government and called them ‘anti-India.
“India has problems. And activists, journalists, and intellectuals absolutely have a role to call out the problems. But the problem is that they allow internationally to colour the overall evaluation of this system,” he said. He reiterated that India is not a fascist country and that it is being wrongly portrayed as a fascist state by the global media.
