Today’s news culture is not about being right but first: Rajdeep Sardesai

BENGALURU: ‘Not taking names’ seemed to be the line of the evening as author and journalist Rajdeep Sardesai took questions from a group of 60 guests at a Literary Dinner on Friday night as part of the

Times Litfest Bengaluru

.

He made a number of incisive comments and observations about the government, fake news, 24-hour news scrambles, communal violence, bias and more, making his meaning very clear though he kept saying he’s “not taking names”.

“There’s this wonderful Hindi word, samvaad, dialogue. The essence of Indian society is dialogue but where once there was debate and dialogue, now there’s only one-way communication and it starts at the top. I’m not taking names but as a

journalist

who grew in the 80s, there was respect between politicians and journalists. Now, politicians treat us as dregs, they refuse to meet us. If they have a press conference, it’s completely orchestrated,” he said.

He spoke about cricket, tennis, social media, journalism, politics and no questions were off the table. “There’s a call of conscience that journalists have to heed: We can’t be in some business model just to be first. This has led to this culture; today’s news is not about being right but being first,” he said.

Despite being part of prime time TV debates every night, Sardesai said he often wondered what he’s doing. “When I have two guests who are just shouting at each other, I wonder what I’m doing. What is the viewer getting out of this? Why has journalism been reduced to this? Maybe I should go and open a pakoda shop,” he said.