It used to be the pen was mightier than the sword. Then came the microphone. But Republic TV seems to have kicked that up a notch. A whole new age of protest journalism, where placards reign supreme!

These are reporters from Republic TV standing in ‘protest’ outside the All India Congress Committee (AICC) headquarters after being denied entry to a press conference.

If you’re wondering why it took seven-eight reporters to cover yet another Congress press conference, well… Shashi Tharoor was to preside over it at the headquarters.

Remember when the channel’s commander-in-chief, Arnab Goswami proudly proclaimed that five of his reporters had surrounded Tharoor’s house in Thiruvananthapuram when the channel did its “super exclusive” around the #SunandaMurderTapes? The channel, perhaps, had a similar modus operandi but Tharoor had them covered this time.

Tharoor had earlier filed a defamation suit against the channel when it described Tharoor as a “murderer”. Though the Delhi High Court refused to put an injunction, the court did direct the channel to “bring down the rhetoric” and stop calling him names.

Soon, #CongViolenceOverTharoor became one of the top trends on twitter as viewers also began chipping in on the hoopla.

Reporters of the channel, who were allegedly assaulted by “Tharoor’s goons”, also filed a police complaint at Tughlaq Road police station alleging that they were “physically thrown out of the AICC premises”.

Arnab asks: Where are the other reporters today and are they going to ask questions on the Sunanda case? #CongViolenceOverTharoor pic.twitter.com/7i69DUELRl

— Republic (@republic) August 1, 2017

“The channel had prepared 14 questions to ask Tharoor during the press conference. So what if they couldn’t ask him directly, these reporters holding up the placards served the purpose.

Their grief was not just with Shashi Tharoor but also the Lutyens media that has “neither guts nor spine” to speak up as one their colleagues was barred entry to the press conference. “Let this be known across the country that this protest is also against the media. The media which stood there inside, did not ask anything more than a cursory question,” exclaimed Goswami as the channel broadcast the protest.

They were the only one.

Well, Tharoor is not the only one to boycott the channel. Barely three months into the launch, their “exposé” and “super exclusives” have led to many politicians such as Lalu Prasad Yadav, Mani Shanker Iyer ignoring, avoiding or flat out boycotting the channel. Laluji went one step further and threatened to hit the channel’s reporter when he posed questions on Republic TV’s first exposé on the Lalu and Shahbuddin tapes.

But the internet being what it is, memes of Republic TV’s reporters and Goswami began doing the rounds on twitter later in the evening.