Hello NL team,

I’m quite baffled at Abhinandan’s suggestion to everyone of you to take vitamins. It is foolish to say the least. Vitamins are not going to help you prevent or cure Covid.

You need not take supplements unless there’s a deficiency or the chance that you will get adequate amounts from your diet is very low.

I’m a doctor, I’ve been in Covid wards and I agree vitamin C might have been used for positive patients, but nowhere was this mass intake advised for people in contact.

I saw a tweet from the NIA that Stan Swamy’s appeal to an NIA court for a sipper is malicious and the matter was between him and the Maharashtra Prisons department. I would like an explanation on that. Keep doing your great work. I absolutely love how Abhinandan leaves no chance to remind everyone how important subscriber-based journalism is.

Shehba Fathima

***

Hello again,

I am glad you called right(ish)-wing people on your shows (both Hafta and Charcha). If they changed their tunes on your shows that’s a victory. That proves to the audience that either these people do not have the courage to defend their views or know that their views are nothing more than bullshit. As one of your many subscribers, I just want to encourage you to keep doing it. Echo chambers are pleasing but hardly interesting.

I was surprised last week when Abhinandan advocated Twitter’s power to censor speech. Was further surprised when he said he had presented ideas along these lines in conferences. I can only hope he met with similar resistance in those conferences as he did from Mehraj on Hafta. His explanation was like saying because I have got a benevolent dictator, dictatorship is good. Just because the people that have invested in Newslaundry don’t interfere in its editorial decisions does not mean that all corporates do the same. Mehraj made the point very well, so I will not waste any more of your time on that. Power with government is not ideal but that is the best we can have.

Once again, love your shows and really feel sorry for Manisha when I think about what she has to endure to create Newsance. I go a bit mental just watching the summary!

Thanks,

Kapil Sharma

***

Hi NL,

Last Hafta, you guys discussed the farm laws. It seemed everyone agreed with everyone, there was no counterpoint. I understand that most Godi Media journalists are nuts so you can’t bring them on to discuss policy. But in case of the farm laws, normal journalists like Shekhar Gupta are supporting them. It would be nice to hear their point of view.

Also, what do you think about “neutral” organizations like the Print Of SG and Lallantop.

Anshu Raj

***

Hey team,

Hope you all are well, and congrats to Manisha on her wedding!

I had a question regarding the media and farmer protests. I saw that even usually non-Godi journalists like Marya Shakil, Aman Sharma of ET were tweeting from what seemed like IT Cell handouts. Abhinandan had tweeted that in his years as a news professional he had never seen the government mobilizing the media like this. It’d be great if you all could elaborate on this.

Thanks, and keep up the good work.

Best,

Kimaya Karmalkar

***

Hi Newslaundry team,

I recently found out about Newslaundry and started subscribing. I love Hafta, Awful and Awesome, and all the wonderful ground reports you have been producing.

I have been trying to subscribe to independent digital media over the past year or so and I feel I found out about you guys very late in the game. Like, I found out about Scroll, Print, Quint, the Wire, Lallantop, Mojo, Faye’s venture, News Minute, and then you guys.

I found out through a ScoopWhoop video where Abhinandan shares how broken the revenue model is. And when I got to know that you are driven only by subscribers, it was like having found a soulmate in the news media.

The point being, I felt it was hard to find you guys. Maybe Abhinandan should do more interviews with other channels or something.

Hope you remain idealistic and grow to be the most transparent media in India.

Cheers,

Manasvi Karanam

***

Hi NL team,

Last few weeks have been a little disappointing in the way that the farmer protests have been discussed. Generalised sweeping statements with casual tones are becoming very obvious now. There’s been no attempt to discuss what the farmers’ demands are, and what are the possible implications on the agricultural sector if they are accepted or rejected.

Yes, I agree that this government is bulldozing through the laws without due consultation. Government also tried dirty means to break the protest, including dirty social media campaigns. The NL panel takes these points and restricts all discussions to this. Somehow, the echo chamber sounds like the farmers are right.

The Modi government hasn’t invented these reforms. Most of the reforms they are trying to quickly implement have been around for decades. It’s just that the way they go ahead is problematic. But it is so frustrating to see forums like NL making it all about the protests instead of discussing the nuances of the laws itself.

Without ranting too much, I sincerely request the panel to discuss these issues:

1. The Punjab farmers are asking for the repeal of the laws. While this may help Punjab’s farmers, what about the rest of the country.

2. Why is the government so adamant about not including the MSP in the laws. I hope there must be reasons.

3. Is opening up the agricultural sector to a larger market good in the long term?

I am an engineer settled in Australia. Farmer’s son. Done farming myself, been to APMC for deals. I’m inclined towards farm reforms, except a few issues such as not allowing payment disputes to be taken to a civil court.

Bhavesh Bhatt