Paytm thinks it’s running the media. We’d like to argue otherwise. (Hint: NDTV)

It can’t get cockier than this. Paytm, or its chief operating officer at least, thinks it is running the media.

Ever eager to defend the honour of Big Media, we’d like to argue otherwise. It is the media that is really keeping Paytm’s dukaan up and running with all the publicity. Sample NDTV’s reportage, for example, post-demonetisation. Here you have a scribe reporting on Paytm helping hapless devotees make donations at the Kalka Ji temple in Delhi. Such important news.

Then you had anchor Ravish Kumar talking about new forms of banking – mainly Paytm – that has helped crores of graahaks.

Spot the sponsor.

On NDTV’s Gadget 360 website, there is an article that informs us: “As India grapples with a huge cash crunch, Paytm, which enables digital sales, has launched a new feature.” The whole piece is about Paytm and its lovely features. This comes with the disclosure that “Paytm’s parent company One97 is an investor in Gadgets 360”. The disclosure is not deemed necessary on NDTV news channel despite its partnership with Paytm. (Check out Paytm videos on ndtv.com.) This evening the Paytm CEO was on NDTV demonstrating new features on the app. If you’re going to say this is in lieu of advertisements, we’ll call you a cynic.

Meanwhile, Network 18 just woke up to temples using Paytm, as Zakka Jacob, Deputy Executive Editor, CNN-News18, interviews the company’s CEO as the “big newsmaker”, the “cashless campaigner”. Acche din for some at least.