Mediaah again: Indian blogospehere takes on NDTV

In the recent controversy which took the Indian blogosphere by storm, a classical David (Blogger C.Kunte) versus Goliath (NDTV), where the blogger had to post an unconditional apology for his criticism of NDTV, Managing Editor, Barkha Dutt.

During my initial interview while enrolling in my Journo school, I was asked to write a 1500 word piece on The Times of India. In my heyday of anti establishment pro-libertarian idealism, inspired by the raspy tones of Bob Dylan, I came up with a piece called 'The Times they are a changing'.

Incensed by Medianet and a percieved unipolar media space back then in Mumbai, or so I thought, I came across the infamous Mediaah! blog controversy and the person at the centre of the storm a cerain Mr. Pradyuman Maheshwari.

When I heard about the entire NDTV-Ckunte fiasco, his feud with TOI is what came to mind. Both parties have moved on since then and Mr. Maheshwari has joined as the Editor-in-Chief of Exchange4Media.

Here's a para by my erstwhile rockstar, which is duely posted on E4M, in a piece titled 'Why face booker's and bloggers love to hate Barkha Dutt'

As someone who has had to pay much in legal fees for what I have written on a weblog, I do realise that a blog or a Facebook/ messageboard comment is as liable for legal action as is a comment in mainstream media – print, radio or television. I must confess I got carried away a few times on Mediaah!, a blog-based media site that I would run (2003-05), and when I did a fair bit of homework on the issue, I realised that my consistent criticism of certain entities could be construed as a slanderous campaign against them. And, rightly so.

Well the entire piece which gives a crib-by-crib account and is some what defensive about the whole thing. It's true that a minimum amount of perspective is necessary to objectively understand the position taken by NDTV. It is quite surprising that the voice of restrain emerges out of the most daring and talked about cowboy this side of media.

You can view the entire article by P. Maheshwari on E4M here

Gaurav Mishra, on his blog Gauravnomics, has a complete and probably the best overview on the NDTV-C. Kunte controversy on his blog which can be viewed here.

This is a chronicle of my experiments with social media, web 2.0 and digital communications which details industry updates and analysis from India and around the world