Sunday 1 June 2008

HOW GOAN NEWSPAPERS SUCK UP TO THE CASINO LOBBY

Sunder Advani and gang are at it...
The casino man who has singlehandedly made way for the setting up of the Casino industry in Goa in face of whimsical political posturing and public ire...
And in planting pro-casino's stories in newspapers like the TNT and now Herald, Sunder seems to be spending his money well...
After the Navhind Times carried a plant
filed by Dinesh Patel as a Page 1 flier, Herald hasn't been too far behind...
Yesterday's Herald carried a press release which had Sunder Advani expounding on how well Caravela treats their staffers (if one considered the salaries we used to get in Goa, a deck hand at the Caravela would have got a bigger pay packet than us journos. A deckhand's salary starts at Rs 20,000 to Rs 30,000) well and how the floating casino people 'harbour' noble intentions of building community halls in exchange for a berth in the waters at Verem.

The Herald note claims that Sunder said this in an interview? AN INTERVIEW? If this piece of shit was an interview, than we are ready to bet that the guy who conducted this interview was either out of his senses or was on his knees blowing Advani's trumpet (i.e. metaphoric for singing Advani's paeans... don't go looking for other meanings please... someone's already called us evil-incarnate ;)
This press note itself may not have roused us to this extent... But there is a background to this, which is disturbing...
One day before this report appeared in the Herald, Juino, -- the guy who conducts this
debate on Herald Cable News channel, had a long meeting with the Herald managing director Raul Fernandes. In this context, it should not be forgotten that Raul also has an interest in the casino industry. The guy has applied for a licence with the state government and is keen to start his own casino...Remember the story, we'd done about this?
Now the sum of the debate on casino's on HCN was published as a press release in the Herald with the unabashed endorsement of casinos by South Goa MP and GPCC president Francisco Sardinha who goes on to say things like 'Casinos are for rich people. Poor people need not go there', 'We should educate people... that those who don't have money should not go there',
'Shindri podovonn pai sod', among other inane statements.
This oaf of an MP, who's known for his wide grin and a stiff groin, famously gets away with whatever bullshit he says, remember his comments on er... bull-fights?
Sardinha's comments account for the bulk of the story. The story then quotes Mario Cabral, a veteran journalist, who was amongst the first to master and then propound the art of vanity journalism in Goa. He's a pioneer in the Goan media for adapting the classic manoeuvre
'first oppose, then propose' to journalism... (remember the Konkan railway agitation...)
In a 26-line story (on the web edition) the comments of the only two panelists who opposed casinos have been allotted four lines...
Ample indication to betray which way the editorial drift is taking you...

8 Comments:

Anonymous Anonymous said...

Im offering you a job on Caravela if you shut this blog down
1. Bartender = rs 35000/m
2. Waiter= rs 25000/m + tips
3. Dealer = rs 50000/m
4. Mc=Rs 40000/m

plus rs 1,00,000 for getting off our case. Take it or leave it. dont publish this.

2 June 2008 at 13:15  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Pingback from Blogbharti: [...] Pen Pricks’ blog describes its objectives as “Discover the rotund flanks and the shaggy underbelly of the Goan media. And of course, the rare honest rib”. It does seem to stir [...]

2 June 2008 at 14:27  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Penpricks, kya ho gaa hai aap logon ko? The post looks a mere caricature of its past 'Avtaar'. Some suggestions to pep up this post: Can we have post-mortem of reports filed by Raju Na(la)yak for TOI? Or, Preetu Nair's, for that matter???? Or better still, Ramnath N Pai Raikar's PR pieces? Send Miguel(MOG ASUNDI) Braganza an SOS message PLEASE.

3 June 2008 at 12:45  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Please also on Pamela de Mello of the Asian Age fame

3 June 2008 at 14:14  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Would someone pl give the pay structure of TOI...in the format Kiran (above) has given!

3 June 2008 at 22:52  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Kiran, Please take your offer and shove it up where the sun don't shine!

3 June 2008 at 23:08  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Strange that Penpricks managed to read only one report, on a panel discussion held on HCN, and want to project that as the 'stand' of Herald.

Unfortunately for you, other readers read the Herald on a daily basis. If you want to write poppycock, at least try to give it a veneer of objectivity. Otherwise you're making it very plain that all the Pricks are disgruntled ex-Herald employees with an axe to grind, any how and anywhere...

16 June 2008 at 14:56  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

The Herald is a good newspaper. HCN is a declining wannabe eletronic media. There will be a difference between the two- so what if they are related? And honestly their relation is also weird while the former is a licensed company the latter is unregistered...after a year and half of its unception.
Also, take into account everyone who has been professional and good for HCN has left, thrown out or made to leave.... the scum of the illiterate rule the roost there.
Taking that into consideration, Herald is GOOD.

20 June 2008 at 13:16  

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