#TimesNowDisaster to #Presstitutes: Twitterati slams unethical journalism by media house

Times Now, a news channel that claims to be the number one in the industry, was at the receiving end of social media ire (yet again) after they tweeted about the Minister of State for External Affairs, General VK Singh.

Times Now, a news channel that claims to be the number one in the industry, was at the receiving end of social media ire (yet again) after they tweeted about the Minister of State for External Affairs, General VK Singh. Singh, who has been overseeing the one of the major evacuation operation in Yemen, had stated that his experience monitoring the operation was “less exciting than going to the Pakistani embassy”. Criticising the former army general, Times Now used the hash-tag #VKDisaster to tweet, “General VK Singh says Yemen rescue operation is not as exciting as his visit to Pakistan embassy. #VKDisaster.” (Also read: #ShameOnTimesNow: An absolute embarrassment to the profession of journalism)

Soon after Times Now commented over Singh’s statement, furious twitterati slammed the channel, headed by Arnab Goswami, for misconstruing Singh’s quote and not understanding the sarcasm in the statement. #TimesNowDisaster became a top trend in India as Twitterverse lashed out at the news channel.

Perhaps the channel needs to be informed that India successfully managed to rescue and evacuate over 4000 people from Yemen. Almost 25 countries placed their request with the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) to export their nationals from the war-torn nation. Instead of appreciating the efforts by V K Singh, who left no stone unturned for the safe evacuation of Indians and foreigners stuck in the war-hit Yemen, Times Now went on to criticize the minister. (Also read: Yemen Crisis: Here is how India successfully evacuated Indians & foreigners from the war-hit nation)

Reacting to the incident, V K Singh also caused a row when he used the word ‘presstitutes’ mocking Times Now and its editor-in-chief Arnab Goswami. After Singh’s tweet, Twitterati began to attack at journalists and media houses for allegedly practicing unethical journalism. However, the comment received strong reaction from journalists, who denounced the usage of ‘presstitues’, by Singh.

“General Singh is not some anonymous Twitter handle who can get away by spewing venom and abuse on the media. He is a senior member of the council of ministers who is expected to mind his language in a public fora like Twitter. He has every right to feel that the media has been less than fair to him, but should he be calling the media ‘presstitutes’?” senior journalist Rajdeep Sardesai wrote in his blog.

“Sadly, Gen Singh seems to be taking his cue from the Prime Minister (Narendra Modi), who has on several occasions called the media ‘news traders’, another offensive term popularised by right wing storm troopers on social media. Yes, we in the media need to introspect on falling standards of journalism but should senior politicians be seeking to constantly play to the gallery by denigrating the media? Is this part of a conscious and deliberate strategy to intimidate a section of the media into submission? And should the media silently accept these intemperate utterances without raising a voice of protest?,” he added.

We feel sad for V K Singh that he was mocked for no reason. But we condemn his thought of labelling the media as ‘prestitutes’ that defames the profession of journalism and disgraced the valuable work of journalists.

(Edited by Krishnan Iyer)