Ever since Arnab Goswami has quit his job with Times Now and announced a venture of his own, the nation has wanted to know more about ‘Republic’. The king of sensation further fuelled the fire by posing in a dapper photo shoot for a magazine named ‘Man’s World’. Now, in an interview with them he has let loose his world-famous sharp tongue. Obviously.
While the interview is obviously a part of the buzz getting created around his new channel, some of his answers might just have delivered a dozen scathing burns. Sample this one. Upon being asked, how Republic will be different from his previous organizations namely NDTV and Times Now Goswami said:
“NDTV and Times Now can do what they want. I don’t have any advice for them. You are referring to corporate media houses. I’m referring to Republic. Republic is a content-run enterprise, where content is king. We will not sell news. We will not sell our equivalent of the front page. We will not take land from political parties and go soft on them. We will not fund India-Pakistan peace initiatives as a funding strategy for the organisation.”
Yes. So NDTV and Times Now can do what they want and Arnab does not care anymore. Heard him, guys? Another time Man’s World asked him what he thought of newsrooms and Arnab hinted at a bias towards Lutyen’s Delhi or let’s say the reporter thought so. So the next question was why he thinks newsrooms hold such a bias. Given how he never lack sass, Arnab Goswami was quick to retort with,
“Not a bias, but I think there are people in Delhi who believe that they’re the custodians of Indian journalism. Now those people are too much into each other’s hair. They eat together, meet together, socialise together. And, slowly, unknowingly, or maybe knowingly, over the course of the last 30-40 years, they have become co-opted by the political class. If you go to Delhi, you will find that all those people in media who are supposed to be reporting on the politicians are wining and dining with the politicians. I’m not saying they’ve become corrupt — that may be too strong a word, but they have become compromised.”
The best is yet to come though. The reporter, just like most of us, wanted to know why he quit Times Now and hence asked the question. Not one to mince words, Arnab Goswami let out information in a very borderline subtle manner, or in fact was it even subtle? Decide for yourselves after you’re done reading his reply.
“Let me say that I did not want to make things uncomfortable for them anymore. I don’t believe in journalism in which a film director can call up a media proprietor and then shivers go down the spine of the media proprietor. I have taken on a lot of people in this country. I have broken a lot of scams. I have taken on powerful people and terrorist groups. And I feel truly sad when some film director calls up a media proprietor and says, ‘Why is this channel asking questions about me, and about why Pakistani artists are acting in my film?’ and the media proprietor gets scared. That’s very unfortunate.”
Ahem ahem. Any guesses which director he is talking about, anyone? Well, whichever one of you is interested in addressing the elephant in the room with this answer, let us know in the comments. As for us, after this interview with Man’s World, we are waiting for ‘Republic’ a lot more eagerly than we were before.
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