On June 27, co-founder of Monk Entertainment Viraj Sheth refuted the claims that the podcasts with Union Ministers on the popular YouTube channel Beer Biceps were paid. Monk Entertainment is the parent company of BeerBiceps. The face of the BeerBiceps podcasts, Ranveer Allahbadia, is co-founder of the company with Sheth.
Earlier, OpIndia reported how AltNews co-founder Mohammad Zubair insinuated that YouTuber Akshat Shrivastava took money to criticise Congress. Shrivastava refuted the claims as ‘baseless allegations’.
Quoting a tweet of Apar Gupta, founder of Internet Freedom, Sheth categorically refuted the claims of receiving any fees for the podcasts. He said, “We did not ask for a fee or were offered to be paid for this. None of the political podcasts is a paid promotion.”
We did not ask for a fee or were offered to be paid for this. None of the political podcasts are a paid promotion. https://t.co/eKiKABvm65
— Viraj Sheth (@viraj_sheth) June 26, 2023
When a Twitter user questioned why the video description says it is in “collaboration with MyGov”, Sheth said it was written as the MyGov team made the podcast happen.
Apar Gupta pointed towards a tender released on March 7, 2023, for selecting influencer marketing agencies and insinuated that Beer Biceps was part of the “selected influencers”.
Have recently seen a Podcaster/Youtuber interview several Cabinet Ministers in the Union Government. This piqued my interest and I found that in the description, the phrase, "Co-presented to you by @MyGovIndia".
— Apar Gupta (@apar1984) June 26, 2023
As I regularly check government websites (one of my many weird…
Sheth said, “We have never been empanelled with them for any such purposes till date.”
We have never been empaneled with them for any such purposes till date.
— Viraj Sheth (@viraj_sheth) June 26, 2023
Another Twitter user Arnav Gupta pointed out that co-presented very often means paid partnership. Sheth accepted the mistake and said it should have been worded better. “Our mistake to have not worded it better, though. Full ownership there. A clarification has been added to the description now,” he wrote.
The answer is in your tweet.
— Viraj Sheth (@viraj_sheth) June 27, 2023
“Very often”. A journalist I believe has to verify the news 100% before boldly making a claim.
Our mistake to have not worded it better though. Full ownership there. A clarification has been added to the description now.
Quoting dubious journalist Abhishek Baxi who had added a screenshot of “co-presented to you by MyGov India” from the video’s description, Sheth said, “Would have appreciated if a senior journalist like you would have first verified this news from us like many of your peers did. Instead, you chose to be sensationalist, jump on the bandwagon and make false claims about an assumption you made. Enjoy the reach, I guess.”
Would have appreciated if a senior journalist like you would have first verified this news from us like many of your peers did. Instead you chose to be sensationalist, jump on a bandwagon and make false claims about an assumption you made.
— Viraj Sheth (@viraj_sheth) June 27, 2023
Enjoy the reach, I guess. https://t.co/9MwrwiEBVB
Replying to Twitter user Prashasth who questioned why leaders from opposition parties were not invited, Sheth said it was already in the pipeline.
Already in the pipeline.
— Viraj Sheth (@viraj_sheth) June 27, 2023
The hypocrisy at its best
Beer Biceps (Ranveer Allahbadia) and other high-profile YouTubers and influencers are under attack by the left liberals as the union ministers are giving them interviews. Interestingly, the same section of left-liberals was quiet when Congress leaders were giving interviews to one of their own Samdish. For those who are unaware, Samdish covered Rahul Gandhi’s Bharat Jodo Yatra. Jignesh Mehwani, Bhupesh Baghel, Akhilesh Yadav, Charanjit Channi, Kanhaiya Kumar and even BJP leaders Manoj Tiwari and Hardik Patel have appeared on his show Unfiltered with Samdish.
Rahul Gandhi has also appeared with YouTuber and food critic Kunal Vijayakar, Village Cooking Channel, Curlytales’ Kamiya Jani and others.
On Kunal Kamra’s channel, Supriya Sule, Sanjay Raut, BJP’s Tejaswi Surya, Manish Sisodia, Sanjay Singh, Arvind Kejriwal, Atishi Marlena, BJP’s Shweta Shalini, Asaddudin Owaisi and others have appeared. No one created a fuss about it.
