'CASH FOR EDITORIALS' -- THE LETTER TRAIL -- III
Here’s why we maintain Harry Mann is not the only guy responsible for the CASH FOR EDITORIAL scandal.On September 4, we wrote to Mr Mann telling him that we would send him the sample editorial within the hour. Check out the jpeg image of the sample editorial. On September 5, Mr Mann wrote back a mail that said, “the sample letter is a good ONE BUT THE impact is not so strong as our editor says, if you allow us to ad up something in the write ups .. we are okay with that... same title but there is something additional in your wirte ups”. Harry Mann has no reason to lie at this point in the negotiations. He categorically claims that Robin read the stuff we sent him and that the 'impact' wasn't as strong. (We almost fell off our seats here. Imagine Robin commenting on the quality of an editorial... The guy has the cheek!!!)
Check out the jpeg image of the sample editorial… Click the image… See… the editorial we had sent in has been altered… The way Harry Mann has written in the series of email, we really don’t think he’s equipped enough to write a single line without a couple of lexical seizures. The corrected editorial has all the hallmarks of a Robin Abreu. For starters, it wasn’t written by him (sic). The use of the question and answer technique… You see this often in his editorials. The other hallmark of course is non-verification of facts. What we had done was just fibbed a hell lot about incorporation of locals in the tourism scene in Hawaii, Mauritius, Singapore and China. We just pulled this out our hats… We have no clue whether this is a part of the tourism policy in these countries. But this is the unverified, fibbed advertiser sponsored content that would have been a part of that editorial, you could have been reading, had we been real advertisers and the deal been through. And why we claim that the advertising boss was also in the know of the CASH FOR EDITORIAL scandal? Check out the subject tag in the first mail we sent to Herald. See, who its addressed to… You’ll figure out.
So Mr Raul... this is how your office functions doesn't it... Find something wrong, find a scapegoat and kill it, sell the hide and pickle the meat... And pack the skeletons in the cupboard. In a few months they'd stop smelling too...
posted by Pen Pricks at
00:58
13 Comments:
There is no mention about acer consultants in the proposed editorial.
People in Goa would not have been surprised if such an editorial was published. Our tourism department's brochures are filled with such fibs.
I think the tourism department could use a consultant like you. I really do.
Of course Robin Abreu and the senior management of Herald were in on this. Is anyone naive enough to think it was Harry Mann trying to be the lone ranger? But what will be the fallout of this investigation? Nothing. When national television channels clearly exposed the criminal doings of Babush Monserrate and Vishwajeet Rane before the entire country nothing happened, and both got elected !! This is a nation of cretins.
Silly fellows, you made some mistakes in your sample editorial, but not enough. So Robin changed your editorial and added his own so that it would have his trademark incompetence in stringing together a few grammatical sentences.
For example: 'causing tourists...to Goa', 'visitor's', 'can also metamorphosis', 'Goa's tourism will get a boost unless people are properly trained' [contradictory that?], 'whole heartedly' etc. With all these, it looks like a trademark Robin editorial.
As for the mistakes you made in your sample, I will give you the benefit of doubt and assume this was to save Robin the trouble of inserting his own.
Hey guys Robin Abreu is a C... (swear word edited) man i know him from bombay in Mid-day,as he was thrown out of there for spilling out the important
information about stocks & stuff related to that..he is a C (another unflattering adjective snipped)...
Anon Tourism department: Thanks for making us aware of our potential ;)
Anon who's angry: You are pretty right most ways
Anon with a fine eye: Hope you are convinced
Anon with a penchant for 'C': tell us more... you worked with him? Could you be a bit more objective? We'd love a signed piece from a former colleague of Robin's... Or you know someone who can write this piece Seriously
Raul n his coterie are famous for finding scapegoats. and there have been quite a few in the past few years.
Once the scapegoat is found, they will make a letter either sacking him/her or a memo will be issued as to why action shud not b taken for such and such a crime.
Raul will salivate thinking that 'justice has been done' and it just goes on like this.
And penpricks, in another perspective, Harry Mann wud only have been looking out for some ad revenue and get some more comission in his salary slip.
i feel the real criminal is the editor Rob-bin who edited ur hot potato and sent it back to u. he shud be guilotined and not Mann.
And BTW it is not 'Philipinos' but 'Filipinos'.
These filipinos would continue to curse you pricky guys for ur role in giving them the boot.
Hope it does not end that way because it is like robbing their bread and butter.
Hi Pricks
For quite some time,like many others, I have been discreetly reading the contents of your blog.
The overwhelming response to your latest entry has, however, prompted me to come out ot the
closet,although behind a veil of secrecy.Your cash for editorials scam blog has all the makings
of a Tarun Tejpal inspired Tehelka style eye-popper.In Goan journalism, this is as infrequent an
occurence as an eclipse is to astronomy .
What peeves and sometimes even amuses me are the comments that keep pouring in. Quite a number of
them tend to digress and shoot off their mouths, throwing out a lot of spit in the process.
What I'm beefing about here is that the minute the debate goes on a tangent,the purpose will soon be
lost.The campaign against corrupt journalism must be sustained with the same frenzy with which it
started. Public memory is brief and easily extinguishable.
There is a lack of good newspapers in Goa. Most of them are sanitary napkins or kitchen rags. Good journalists
,like newspapers too ,are a decaying or an extinct tribe in Goa. A good journalist is more than merely a great litterateur in a hurry. It means standing up for the truth
and taking up social issues for the common good fearlessly.
Someone, once classified Ricoh and Derek as
legends in Goa's journalist sphere. I beg to differ. Whilst I admire Derek's and Ricoh's inimitable writing
styles, both of them lack the spine to set issues afire or to stir up public opinion. Great prose is a necessary
hallmark of good journalism but not a sufficient one. Norman Dantas, Sujoy Gupta now belong to the breed of extinct
good journalists, Goa once had.Rajan and Ervell, initially formidable stalwarts,belong to the decaying category.
But Goa should not lose hope. In the dark clouds of Goa's decrepit journalism, there are a few silving linings
to watch out for. Mayabushan Nagvenkar is one of them. He has the attributes of being Goa's M J Akbar.
He is young, bold and very innovative. One of the few journos with an out of the box approach.The Goan
journalistic fraternity and public must encourage scribes like Bushan by debating on crucial issues that
are at stake and not let it degenerate into a glib discussion.
As Robin cant write Editorials, he perhaps thought that the best thing is to sell the editorial space and make his boss Raul more happier. Because what Raul is looking at is the moolah
What can one expect from a plagiarist.
He must have thought of a better option after penpricks exposed him of plagiarising. The available option for him was to sell the space.
Atleast these editorials will be written by some tie-choked MBA crooked mind will can fetch revenue to the newspaper.
What exactly is this Annonymous who wants Bhushan to be M J Akbar trying to tell in this context of herald's cash for edits.
Unless he is trying to do some 'maska' and get the penpricks to reveal themselves.
Is he a doctor who has checked the spines of Rico and Derek?
Just stick to the point here, mr annonymous. Sorry penpricks, no offense.
Mr Anon if you have spine, reveal urself first.
"Great prose is a necessary
hallmark of good journalism but not a sufficient one"
Ha!
Does anyone like chicken xacuti or cafreal sans all the spices?
Without prose there is no journalism.
note to Penpricks: pls dont publish such un-related comments here. it will become like Goajourno with all its mudslinging, personal attacks.
While on the subject of Herald, I suggest all of us to please visit the Herald website, (link on penpricks) and read about Herald in the About section on the top right hand.
Its makes funny reading, more because, newspapers are supposed to be the flag bearers of good English.
Even third rate companies have better quality English on their websites.
The last bit about 'hard core' sounds as if it has been lifted from a hard core porno site a la Robin-style.
Coterie anon: Thats the way the cookie crumbles for Raul... And thanks for the Filipino bit
Anon who follows: there's more...
Anon who says Robin can't write edits: ditto on that
tie-choked anon: right again
Grass is green: There's more
the last anon: Hey we put that up on the blog... how bout giving it a rewrite
Hi grass is green,
You missed the import of my post completely.My statements were figurative and not to be taken literally.I neither want penpricks to reveal themselves nor am I maskaing anyone.You tend to draw conclusions by wrong inferences. Since my contention was that we need good journalists to keep issues like the cash for editorials scam alive in public memory, I do not think it was unrelated. It is you who failed to see the link. And by the way remember that you're using a pseudonym. Sorry, nothing personal in here.Just being blunt.
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