Dear Newslaundry

First of all, I would like to say this that I have subscribed to Newslaundry last month so Abhinandan please stop making me feel guilty about it. I have been watching you for  last four years I have almost watched everything that you guys have produced and read everything that was interesting. Hafta is my favorite and I would like to see some more episode of Dhobighat . I admire you guys very much but I have few issues with you and these issues are because I think you guys deserve much more success than you already have, because if you succeed in what you are doing there will be an alternate news model where people can really do real journalism.

So let’s start laundry list with my favorite character on the table Abhinandan , Abhinandan I agree with you in almost everyone of your position and I think it’s pretty god damn  good that you speak your mind without thinking how politically correct it is. I agree with you  when you say our current prime minister is Patty when he goes abroad , my diagnosis of it is that he has an inferiority complex. One more thing about our  current prime minister I have heard  many times in Hafta that he is a good orator I don’t believe it for a second maybe you guys are right that is his speaking style is good but the content is very patronizing for any human being who has passed high school. Now let’s come to where I don’t agree with you, I don’t agree with you when you support Bill Maher’s position on Muslims. Don’t get me wrong I am a big fan of Bill Maher and I have never missed a single episode of his show for last five years, hell I have watched most of his old show named politically incorrect, but when he talks about Muslims he always talks about one research and that is the research done by pew research Centre, that has been done on the people of the Middle East and Pakistan do you really think 90% Muslim of India, Bangladesh, Indonesia and Turkey will say that whoever leaves  to religion should be killed. I also don’t agree with his point that Quran is a book of the shit load  of bad ideas, so his Bible. There was a time when Christians were more violent than Muslims now  there is a time when Muslims are more violent than Christians. He forgets to mention that all this nonsense started when Western nations took one sided approach Palestine problem and then  some nations tried to influence the Middle East, history has told us many times that it doesn’t matter whether we are governed by a dictator or democratically elected government when a  foreign force come to our land we do not see them as Liberator we see them as invaders. So meddling in someone else’s affair is the main problem, not a book. I also don’t agree with him that Muslim world is unfair towards women, this may be right for many places but he just generalizes it like he generalizes everything about Muslims and he conveniently forgets about Pakistan and Bangladesh who chose women to lead them. Abhinandan except this issue there is nothing else that I don’t agree with you.

Hi Anand  how are you, you are one of the most interesting person on the table, when I was introduced to buy this podcast I was told that you are a conservative person since then I have tried a lot hate you but I have failed almost every time in my effort, I will go along and say you have converted a critic into a fan , but still there are some issues where I disagree with you especially on the issue of intolerance I think you take very wrong approach here you go to stats and say there is nothing new in it , society has always been bigoted, I agree with you that we are bunch of bigots but there was rarely  a time when  bigotry was justified by the people sitting very high in the power. There is a minister in current government named Prachi  who says she wants Muslim free India and there is no uproar about it, people in power just say that is not the view of our party, and bigotry goes on and on.

Madhu I have deep respect for you I think you are an institution in yourself but there are things that I cannot find comforting like I remember once in the podcast  you said police is very polite to me they were polite because of your car otherwise police as an institution is most disgusting in this country. I also didn’t like when you let Tavleen Singh rambled on her pettiness in your interview. I agree with you when you say Barkha’s style of interviewing is better than confrontational style. And please please please do not say anything in support of Arnab Goswami because he is the flag bearer of McCarthyism  in India and he has made the okay to accuse people and put his binary vision  on them.

Manisha and Depanjana I couldn’t find anything wrong with both of you and I hope one day I’ll find something to say about it.

Now let’s come back to Newslaundry , guys you need to take care of your android and iPhone apps. And I’m very disappointed with your coverage of American election, even in your podcast discussion you treated Donald Trump like a joke, I agree he was a joker but the day he became presumptive nominee he was not joke anymore he was a threat. On the other hand, I think any Republican president will be better than a Democratic president for India because Democratic party still holds its old views on South Asia. In the end, I’ll be praying for your success because it will be very important for real journalism.

Regards,

Sachin Baghel.

Hi Newslaundry,

To begin with, big thanks to all of you – those who sit for Hafta and those we don’t hear about, technicians and producers etc. Thanks also to those who came up with this model of no advertising. And yeah, before Abhinandan cracks a joke, yes, I’m a subscriber. In fact I just did it after hearing last Hafta where Abhinandan mentioned his plan B! When you mentioned plan B, I seriously had a slight attack saying, oh phish, now they are going to think about ads!! But you came up with Blood donation.. blah blah..

I discovered Newslaundry of lately, guess from NL Hafta #48. Then I went through your site, youtube videos and pretty much impressed. But what really pulled me to subscribe apart from Abhinandan’s plan B attacck was Chitra Subramaniam’s Bofors Story – an interview done with Madhu Trehan. Don’t know exactly why but hearing her story made me to contribute. I wish I could do it in a big way but I still study and work together; former on stipend so I thought I will start small.. blah blah

You guys call yourself alternative media (am I right?). I do follow Scroll, TheWire, NewsMinute, Hoot and must say, they are all different from what we call mainstream media but still that difference isn’t wide enough. As Ravish Kumar (disclosure: I do admire him like Manisha!) points out, reporting is almost dead today. What we hear today is chit-bits from newsroom. It’s good to hear a thing or two from NE but can’t we talk more about south and NE? I don’t know which big news organization has a office in NE! Like Kashmir, civilians are hunted down (there is sadly no better word with me), raped there but hardly do we give them space to protest in our esteemed space. They also protest where police fore water canons and tear gas which when happens in Delhi becomes news but nobody bothers to cover it when it happens elsewhere. I know you had done one article recently but that’s not enough (in my opinion). It’s basically rant.. Can we do stories from NE? Someone who lives there and probably is listening to Hafta can write (of course with evidence and material to support his/her claims). Also about South – every time on Hafta (mostly) you guys discuss stories which our news channels covered – I know Hafta began as critic of news that was covered that week but that leaves the big news that was uncovered still uncovered! Rajdeep Sardesai and many others have talked about this calling it tyranny of distance but very little has been done to solve this crisis. I strongly believe someone like Newslaundry can take the baby steps in that direction. I know you would need resources to fund such reportage but I can only pray for people to subscribe except asking my friends to help.

Every news organization does political stories and leaves behind huge amount of stories that matter the most like climate changes, instances where govt is cutting trees to make way for corporate (I remember you had done story about Goa and coconut trees but that seemed more because it had bit of masala in it!). 24K trees are being cut around Karwar, a historical site is being destroyed but hardly did any news channel report it (I filed few RTIs and also wrote small blog here).

Anand every now and then brings in scientific stories which are breather from political stories. Thanks Anand. Not that politics isn’t interesting but everyone is wasting their resources on getting a useless bite from that and this politician.

Modi government is doing ads after ads with long claims. Ravish had did a story on Piyush Goyal’s claims, busting his claim of electrification. If possible, can NL not fact check the long claims from those ads? I know I’m asking too much but forget doing, you guys at least care to listen. Thanks for that.

I have my exams this Sunday so my thoughts are all scattered. Will try to sum them up and write again but do think over this things. Please.

Lastly, thanks everyone. Small or big, whatever you are doing is worthy of big big applause. Enjoy your hafta, especially Anand’s insights, Abhinandan’s humour, Manisha sometimes long but informative commentary, Deepanjana’s accent, Madhu’s interviews.. Thanks for making news free of ads!!

Thanks,
Dheeraj Kalgutkar

Hello NL team ,

Regarding the topic of Raghuram Rajan , I would like to understand why there is so much frenzy about his renewal . I completely understand that the absurd claims of his Indianness and sacking him is unfair but then no other governor has as much coverage as he has been given . Would just like to point out that the previous 4 governors from C Rangarajan to D Subbarao were as efficient as Raghuram Rajan and I am sure they did not face such media frenzy about their next terms . Even , our former PM Manmohan Singh was a former RBI governor and nobody questioned about extension of tenure i presume in the 80s . As a researcher in economics and finance, I am dumbfounded by some of the claims of the media , especially noted columnist Ankaleshwar Aiyar (brother of Mani Shankar Aiyar) that removing Rajan would actually stop the foreign investments and could lead to a reversal . No hedge fund or mutual funds in the world invest in a market for who is the governor of the central bank when the role of the bank mostly is just to control the monetary policy which might be a big deal but it is not the pivotal factor in deciding the foreign investments come in to a market. That is unfortunately the government’s prerogative and more the government could create wealth and value to a system – more will the investments that will come in (through FDI or FII route).

As much as I would like to have Rajan have another tenure because of the name he has created in the academia world and his tussle with Greenspan – I still don’t see the point of so much frenzy over his follow up tenure.

I would like to know what are your opinions on these.

Thanks and Regards,
Kishore