#JACKPOTJOURNALISM PART V - HARDCORE HERALD'S HARD'CRORE' NEWS #JackpotJournalism #Goa #GoaMedia #PaidNews #IndianMedia
https://youtu.be/XX1xW08V8Bo Part V of #JackpotJournalism begins with an eczema moment. The casino honcho reminds Adwait of a conversation at a meeting with Herald general manager Michael, where the latter is supposed to have said "you scratch my back, I scratch yours". Adwait nods and admits he was present at the meeting. Adwait the pitches for another meeting between the casino honcho and Michael. The casino honcho explains his advertising pattern to Adwait and wants the latter to give him a hint of how much money should be paid, while also promising the sales assistant general manager, that his name will not be disclosed to his bosses. The casino honcho continues with his moral spiel claiming they do not want to promote casinos to locals. Ya Right. Adwait then suggests that the casinos buy sky buses (not the failed Konkan Railway project!), which a form of an ad at a higher premium in Herald's supplement 'Cafe'. Adwait then suggests to the casino honcho contribute to events (organised by Herald). The honcho says that the cumulative cost of both the sky buses and event sponsorship would still be five lakh and not Rs. 25 lakh a month as demanded by Herald. Adwait then says Rs. 5 lakh would be more than enough (bargaining at work), but says Michael needs to be convinced. Adwait then concedes that the demand from Herald is arbitrary. To this, the casino honcho says he doesn't like arm-twisting, Adwait says "nobody likes it" or something like that and says he is caught in the middle. Adwait admits, that he would wonder about ways to pacify the casino honcho, when the negative articles used to be published on Herald. At this point Adwait and the casino honcho swap points about the casino industry and businesses in Goa. While the casino honcho claims what's happening is unfair, Adwait ridicules the BJP government and Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar for their flippant policy on casinos. Adwait also mockingly remarks about how Parrikar used to protest against casinos by demonstrating with lit candles (Parrikar used mashals actually) and about how the Defence Minister keeps quiet now. The casino honcho then complains about how the media is writing constantly about U-turns by the government saying there should be an end to this (yes, you wish!) Adwait then gets some of his confidence back and claims that Herald's anti-casino news coverage has toned down to a large extent from June (2015) onwards... (Just keep your headphones away from your ears, when Adwait says 'large extent' the second time). Adwait says that the coverage is toned down to a "large extent because we are intervening every time". (And yet Adwait and the Herald Front page edit claims sales and marketing does not interfere with editorial and news coverage? What a crappy lie) Adwait also says that there were a couple of consultants working for the Herald who used to help his sales team intervene in news coverage, which Adwait says, was mostly about writing "bad bad bad all the time". The educated class, Adwait says, does not like such cynical coverage, which he says is fit only for taxi drivers and tiatrists, clearly damning and running down his own newspaper's readership. He then says, if Herald needs to penetrate the upmarket households which own BMWs and dine in five star restaurants, the coverage should not be so cynical. One second, now I wonder to whom was the Herald front page open edit addressed to yesterday? The taxi drivers and tiatrists or the BMW owners or five-star diners. Someone needs to clarify this, no? Now follows another interesting part of the conversation, where Adwait claims that Herald's coverage of Sri Rama Sene chief Pramod Muthalik was over-the-top, claiming Herald is playing Muthalik's hands. To this, the casino honcho claims Muthalik hails from a village short distance from his ancestral home near Hubli and that no one cares a whit about him. Part V comes to a close with the casino honcho claiming that Muthalik's 'coming to Goa' was being treated like "Osama bin Laden" is coming to Goa in the media. Adwait then says that he has constant arguments with Herald Editor Sujay Gupta over such issues. "We point that out, then he doesn't like it that we are stopping it. 'You should give me a free hand and all that'" says Adwait, quoting Sujay NOTE: Part V was delayed a bit because of the time I had to devote replying to Adwait's clarification and responding to Herald's front page open edit. Apologies for the same.
