A Romantic Realist

Last Post

2009-01-02T13:12:00Z

Raju Narisetti stepped down as Mint editor effective 1 January 2009. His Mint blog, A Romantic Realist, will be archived after this last post. Thank you for reading and reacting to it and we look forward to your continued involvement with Mint's blogs. Livemint Share this post: email it! | del.icio.us! | digg it! | newsVine!...(read more)

On open letters and media ethics

2008-12-23T01:07:00Z

Readers of this Romantic Realist are used to seeing a lot of posts on Indian media. Since there is now some published debate on this particular issue, I thought it might be interesting to post this open clarification that ran on the front page of Mint on 22 December in relation to a previous "Open Letter" by an unnamed IAS officer that had run in Mint. ((And once you have read the Mint article(s) below, feel free to read a different view from a signed Raisina Hill column by Business Standard...(read more)

Why Anil Ambani wants $2.1 billion from his brother, Mukesh Ambani of Reliance; Arthur Sulzberger Jr of The New York Times and the Romantic Realist

2008-12-20T05:13:00Z

Stories in Indian media about estranged billionaire brothers, Mukesh Ambani of Reliance Industries Ltd , India's most valuable company by market capitalization, and Anil Ambani , of Anil Dhirubhai Ambani Group , shaking hands at a meeting of industrialists, and resulting, usual speculation of a potential thaw between them, reminded me of this legal notice. Anil Ambani has formally sued his brother Mukesh Ambani along with Arthur Sulzberger Jr , chairman of The New York Times Co ; Clark Hoyt ...(read more)

When Kalam doesn't cut it

2008-12-18T10:44:00Z

In one of those typical company-wide emails that only IT people can send, one landed in my in box a little while ago, titled " How Can I Contribute in Saving Corporate Costs?" The IT department has decided that sending me an excerpt from a speech, supposedly given by former Indian president and now major gadfly , A.P.J. Abdul Kalam, titled " Be the change you want to see!" (which in my book is now clearly up there in recently overdone cliches) is the perfect way to try and make...(read more)

Is Obama's Time but also the era of Wall Street scammers

2008-12-17T14:52:00Z

In what was a predictable pick, here is what Time magazine had to say in naming Barack Obama as its 2008 "Person of the Year": "For having the confidence to sketch an ambitious future in a gloomy hour, and for showing the competence that makes Americans hopeful he might pull it off, the President-elect is TIME's Person of the Year." ( Read full package of stories here ) If the criteria is that Time's “Person of the Year” selection was the “person or persons who most affected...(read more)

The Page 3 culture's deep roots

2008-12-17T10:13:00Z

While the pervasive Page 3 approach (a less newsy Page 6 for those New York Post fans among the Romantic Realist's readers) focusing on "who attended wearing what on their sleeve and on their body" rather than "what was show there" is how most Indian metro newspapers cover art these days, just how deeply entrenched this has become was brought home earlier today when I got this email invitation for the opening of an art show on 17 December in New Delhi. What struck me was how...(read more)

We were wrong but you are still wronger!

2008-12-16T09:32:00Z

Being a believer in newspapers having a clearly articulated and transparent corrections and clarifications policy, this Romantic Realist was delighted to see Hindustan Times promote a very prominent Clarifications/Corrections column that asks readers to alert htreporters@hindustantimes.com for any "bloomer" in the paper and promising that the paper is "happy to correct ourselves." ((Regular readers of Mint , where the Romantic Realist has a day job, are probably familiar with...(read more)

Pakistani Editor Najam Sethi Awarded 2009 Golden Pen of Freedom

2008-12-15T12:11:00Z

Hot off the press is news from the World Association of Newspapers/World Editors Forum of this prestigious award. The Romantic Realist , who is on the board of the World Editors Forum , is delighted that a South Asian journalist has been recognized for standing up to authoritarian regimes. Here is the citation from WAN/WEF, though I think it should be Najam not Najaam: " Najaam Sethi , Editor-in-Chief of Friday Times and Daily Times in Pakistan, has been awarded the 2009 Golden Pen of Freedom...(read more)

The intellectually bankrupt Indian Left

2008-12-15T11:15:00Z

Muntazer al-Zaidi , the Iraqi journalist who threw shoes at US President George W. Bush during a press conference, in what is typically an act that ranks among the worst possible insults in the Arab world, was at least making a direct--and risky--public political statement about Iraqi deaths following the 2003 U.S.-led invasion. Indeed, the television journalist whose twin shoe attack, while apparently shouting "this is a goodbye kiss from the Iraqi people, dog.This is from the widows, the orphans...(read more)

When the No. 2 is really trying harder

2008-12-14T06:04:00Z

Readers of Romantic Realist might remember he is partial to Jet Airways despite all the over-the-top allure of relative upstart Kingfisher Airlines. But here is a vivid example of how being No. 2 to Naresh Goyal's Jet, Vijay Mallya's Kingfisher does try harder and is much more acutely aware of the need to go the extra mile: Exhibit 1 4.07 am: An email with a cute digital image of colorful balloons rising against a blue sky landed in my inbox from birthdaygreetings@updates.jetairways.com ...(read more)

Tech Sex

2008-12-11T03:36:00Z

Every once in a while a new word or phrase is coined, usually by a researcher or by the media, that has all the ease-of-use and shorthand built into it to quickly become a word that will get widely used and end up in a dictionary. This morning, from Agence France-Presse comes this story and headline, and the Romantic Realist suspects " tech sex ", atleast its straightforward, non-kinky meaning, will soon end up in our every day lexicon. One in five US teens has had ’tech sex’: study "One...(read more)

Arianna Huffington and The Laid-Off Journalist, the yin and yang of Western journalism

2008-12-10T02:51:00Z

I Want Media , an online media resource, recently named Arianna Huffington co-founder of the online news and opinion site, The Huffington Post , as the 2008 Media Person of the Year in a poll that saw her easily trump the likes of Rupert Murdoch of News Corp, Tina Fey, the dead-on US television impersonator of Sarah Palin, the Twitter trio of Biz Stone, Jack Dorsey and Evan Williams, and Sam Zell, who has driven the Tribune Co. into seeking bankruptcy protection. Huffington, whose website capitalized...(read more)

When journalists make a business case for why their rival newspaper is also a must-read

2008-12-09T04:10:00Z

It is not unusual in New Delhi to get marketing pitches for why The Times of India or Hindustan Times are the essential morning reads. I don't know what the overlap of readership is between both papers but each one does try to say they are the must read and not the other. What is interesting to me is how journalists and editors at both papers seem to be doing their best to convince Delhi's readers that they actually can't do without both papers. Both newspapers of 9 December are a good...(read more)

The (un)intentionally offensive Indian?

2008-12-04T07:49:00Z

There has been a lot of renewed debate in India this past week about Muslims, Hindus, Pakistanis, “true” Muslims, Jews, Americans and Islamists, as India and Indians come to terms with the terrorist attacks in Mumbai. It is only natural that issues of race, religion, ethnicity and skin-color, all of which are deeply rooted in the Indian psyche, bubble up to the surface at difficult and emotional times like this. But two disparate “conversations” this past week also brought home to the Romantic Realist...(read more)

A Prime Minister Who Should Be An OpEd Writer

2008-11-30T14:25:00Z

Usually, it is the opinion page editors of newspapers who are in the habit of telling the government and the people as to what ought to be done. In India, however, it is Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's speciality as the man who can get things done and who is supposed to get things done has increasingly turned into an editorial writer (or editorial speech maker), often simply telling the country what ought to be done rather than actually doing it. The Romantic Realist's last blog post on the...(read more)