The Indian blog world is in flames over Barkha Dutt (NDTV journo) suing a blogger named Chyetanya Kunte regarding certain comments he made in a post regarding the 26/11 coverage. Basically he called her an idiot and said the coverage endangered lives. The post is gone, but you can read it from Google's cache. Scroll down for the post. (offtopic: Internet is lot like Las Vegas; what happens in Vegas stays in Vegas!) Kunte succumbed to the pressure and made a very legal looking withdrawal of statement post.
Bloggers have been calling for Dutt's head and to be frank rightfully so! The fourth estate or so called custodians of Democracy is unwilling to bear with criticism? Just head over to the Facebook discussion where Barkha threatens another person. Immature, and a total one at that. Barkha has every right to defend against the allegations. She could have explained her position or if its not worth her time she could have just ignored it! Instead she went for a lawsuit to shut the mouth of someone disagreeing with her. Just read the post in contention to see if there was anything very far fetched or libelious than the ones we see every other day in blogosphere?
Kunte may be no saint and certainly a moron. He had a good case in his hand and would have gathered lot of support. Instead he bowed down and kicked himself in the nuts! Is there no room for criticism? Or only the journalists are supposed to do that?
Barkha says this in her Facebook post:
I got a lot of info and insight for and against this issue from blogs. Again from the jobless blokes. Most of the info I got was from Sanjukta's post against the blogger hoopla. Read that post and interesting discussion on that too. I don't agree with her analysis and I really cannot digest her arguments. But again, I respect her view point and would like to quote something all of us should be mindful off.
Bloggers have been calling for Dutt's head and to be frank rightfully so! The fourth estate or so called custodians of Democracy is unwilling to bear with criticism? Just head over to the Facebook discussion where Barkha threatens another person. Immature, and a total one at that. Barkha has every right to defend against the allegations. She could have explained her position or if its not worth her time she could have just ignored it! Instead she went for a lawsuit to shut the mouth of someone disagreeing with her. Just read the post in contention to see if there was anything very far fetched or libelious than the ones we see every other day in blogosphere?
Kunte may be no saint and certainly a moron. He had a good case in his hand and would have gathered lot of support. Instead he bowed down and kicked himself in the nuts! Is there no room for criticism? Or only the journalists are supposed to do that?
Barkha says this in her Facebook post:
Just because some random bloke can sit at a computer and make up stuffSo the views of random blokes who watch her telecast, get her channel the TRP, and basically feeds her mean nothing? Is she on a pedestal where she is a Goddess untouchable by mortals? To be very frank I have seen much better writing and analysis from random blokes in the Internet than from qualified journos. People who do their job, run a family, and then go ahead and write blogs. Heck! These blokes made up the Time person of the year in 2006! Can Barkha even dream about that?
doesnt mean he or others like him need to be dignified with responding
to their utter and total rubbish.
I got a lot of info and insight for and against this issue from blogs. Again from the jobless blokes. Most of the info I got was from Sanjukta's post against the blogger hoopla. Read that post and interesting discussion on that too. I don't agree with her analysis and I really cannot digest her arguments. But again, I respect her view point and would like to quote something all of us should be mindful off.
"I may disagree with what you say, but i’ll defend to the death your right to say it." -Voltairre.
Been reading about this incident in many blogs..and I din't find anything wrong in what Kunte said..I never thought someone from the mainstream media can be so intolerant to criticism, that too from an unknown blogger..Barkha herself is digging her own grave by pursuing this poor guy..
ReplyDeleteshame on her..!
hearing abt this for the first time. If a journalist sues some one for excessing his constitutional right(which is something all journalist brag abt when they report, including Barhka), I guess its time v give them a taste of their own medicine. Go to court for each and every report that they show!
ReplyDelete@Praveen: MSM is another set of elitists whose integrity is directly related to their TRP.
ReplyDelete@Kenny: That would be ideal way to go!
gr8 post...me was a gr8 fan of barkha dutt...bt now i doubt it...if ppl like her dont take criticisim,thn who will??
ReplyDelete@chithira: Absolutely! What is even more mind boggling is that there is still no mention in the MSM. They even have Facebook beats for Gods sake!
ReplyDelete