Inside the Network18 takeover
livemint.com
livemint.com
'Howard Beale' from Network(1976).
Some parts translate pretty clearly to a naive reader - high-growth startup accrues too much debt in acquisitions and expansion, some of the new ventures lose money, takes on a high-profile investor and restructures to stabilize, investor takes over the company and kicks out the founder. Others are less so - references to Reliance's place in the political sphere, something about gas prices(?) which I presume Reliance has something to do with, a new political movement that is apparently supported by some of the people in the story but not others.
One of the major reason for the downfall was growing discontent, anger among the people against corruption, crime and inflation etc.
A new political party which calls itself, Aam Admi(Common Man)Party, started by Arvind Kejriwal, emerged by raising its voice against corruption. Multi-billion dollar scams were exposed frequently.
The party projected itself as anti-corruption and targeted Congress, and several businesses. It raised fund through people and media propagated their message. It continued to expose and openly question government expenses. They targeted Reliance, the largest business conglomerate, several times.
However, these are all accusations made during a vehemently charged election atmosphere. Take them with a pinch of salt.
I have read the story, and I very well understand the movement under the surface.
A comprehensive article about the continuous degradation on electronic media would have been suitable as it would have provided a complete image, instead of this, where it gives a peephole view to a very large problem.
A famous author once said that to trade underlying agendas and flow of control, follow the money.
There have been in past a lots of reports about malpractices prevalent in media. Selective/biased reporting against political parties, journalists making deals with sting operations as leverages, paid news, etc.
And thus, to me, this is merely transfer of control. And thats exactly why I think this report is not apt for this forum, as although it presents quite a legitimate picture about take over of one network by a corporate giant, it is just a small pixel in an overall huge picture about the degradation of live & electronic media.