NDTV reminds ToI of ‘basic principle’ as paper runs TV channel’s exclusive without credit

NDTV has objected to the Times of India running a story based on the channel’s exclusive interview with Rajasthan chief minister Ashok Gehlot without giving the network any credit.

The news channel lodged its complaint publicly, on Twitter.

The report was published as the lead story on page 16 of the newspaper’s Delhi edition on Friday. Headlined “Gehlot brands Pilot ‘gaddar’, says he’ll never get CM post”, it attributed the chief minister’s remarks to “a TV channel” to point to tensions between the Congress leader and his party colleague and former deputy Sachin Pilot.

The lead package also contained the paper’s cartoon – ‘TOI Line Of No Control’ – on the issue.

In an interview on Thursday with NDTV’s Sreenivasan Jain, Gehlot made scathing remarks against Pilot – on a day when the latter joined Rahul Gandhi and Priyanka Gandhi Vadra for the Bharat Jodo Yatra in Madhya Pradesh. It seemed to be a clear signal to the Congress high command – amid a demand by the camp loyal to Pilot for clarity on the leadership issue – before the Bharat Yatra Jodo Yatra enters Rajasthan.

"A gaddaar cannot be chief minister,” Gehlot said. “High command cannot make Sachin Pilot the chief minister…a man who doesn’t have 10 MLAs. Who revolted. He betrayed the party, he is a traitor.”

Big media, it seems, can learn a thing or two about attribution. Here’s an example when a Newslaundry report was claimed as an exclusive by a prominent media house.