Last night was going to be a boring
night on prime time news TV channels. Politics had nothing interesting
(sensational!) to offer. But suddenly, like a bolt from the blue, news of a
sting operation broke and the desperate channels heaved a sigh of relief. The
website which conducted the sting – Cobrapost.com – had no doubt timed the release
of its report perfectly, saving the day for the channels and generating maximum
returns for itself! Unfortunately, the sting revealed more about journalistic rot
than about black money itself.
For starters, the sting was a completely
one sided affair, and hence unethical. There was no opportunity afforded to the
counterparty (the banks) to put out a defence. Newspapers – which are far more
mindful of ethics – did get the banks and the Finance Minister and the RBI to
respond. The right way to go about the sting would have been to show the
recordings to the senior management of the banks, and get them to react. That way,
viewers would have been able to judge for themselves exactly what was going on.
If that meant waiting for a few days, the journalist should have had the
patience. Last night, TV news channels were running scrolls of denials by the banks.
But the sting itself did nothing of the sort. Why couldn’t Cobrapost have
waited for a few days?
The sting thus lost credibility. It
also raised other questions. How do we know that the tapes are authentic?
Remember when the Zee-Jindal spat broke out a few months back, the first thing to
be questioned was the authenticity of the tapes. Why? Simply because a
politician had carried out the sting? Isn’t it possible that Cobrapost also
doctored the tapes? Not in the sense that the footage is fake. But in the sense
that they could have edited out portions that were unpalatable (like some managers
refusing to take the bait?). Journalists think of themselves as being holier
than thou. Whatever they do is right….
This sting also suffers from one other major
problem. The bank managers only talked
of accepting black money. They didn’t actually accept cash. The journalist was
impatient. He should have strived harder. He should have gone the whole hog and
captured it all on tape. But I guess he figured he had enough for the TV
channels to put out. He wasn’t interested in more.
Clearly the objective of Cobrapost was
to gain some traction for its own website. The sting was a marketing ploy – the
content of the sting was irrelevant to the extent that it could have been anything sensational. The sting could
have been about a prostitute claiming many politicians come visiting her or
some such thing as well. The sting wouldn’t even have to capture the
politician; just the prostitute’s claim would be enough!
All stings are sensational. The first
rule of a sting is to show something that looks unbelievable. Peoples’ jaws
should drop when they hear or see the shots. That is why the journalist last
night kept saying “These were just cold
calls”, making viewers feel that the reality was far worse. The second rule
is to involve big personalities or institutions. In this case, the top 3 private banks have been put in the
dock. The jaw drops a little more. OMG – I bank with these banks, and this is
what is going on in my bank??? Mentally insert the Balaji like sound effects
and you get the real feel of drama! The third rule is to run the story without
adequate commentary from the other side. Because that somehow takes away from
the punch. Totally avoidable!
To add spice, make the politician the subject
of the sting. Its foolproof. The journalist who did the sting claimed that he
had black money from a politician. The
fact that the bank managers did not even bat their eyelids is supposed to be evidence that politicians do indeed have
black money. That’s what gave the story legs. That’s why the entire prime time
was devoted to it. That’s what gave the BJP and the Left the opportunity to say
“This government doesn’t want to curb
black money”. That’s what allowed the journalist to make the catchy claim “The fact is Switzerlands are here in India”. Wow!
But think for a moment. Would the bank manager’s reaction have been any
different had the journalist said the money belonged to a builder, or a cricketer
or a businessman? Would he for instance have said “Oh even cricketers have black money” indicating cricketers usually
don’t have black money??? Clearly, the politician was inserted as part of a
good marketing strategy!
Wikipidea says: A typical sting will have a law-enforcement
officer or cooperative member of the public play a role as criminal partner or
potential victim and go along with a suspect's actions to gather evidence of
the suspect's wrongdoing. The catch words are “law-enforcement officer or
cooperative member”. Stings are not OK when done by journalists….especially
those who have forgotten even the most basic of journalistic ethics. Of course
in a country where the TV medium believes that sensationalism sells, such minor
issues as ethics are easily forgotten.
I personally am not convinced about the
findings of this sting. Offering a locker for stashing black money is not strictly
“laundering” since the black money stays black, even though it is illegal. And
the thing about insurance premia being paid in black sounds impossible. To the
best of my knowledge, insurance premia (especially when the financial returns
are large) have to be paid by cheque only. Also, making Demand Drafts (DDs) with
cash, and then using those to make “legal” investments is just being naive. The
IT department would surely get to know. And splitting cash into small packets
so that it goes undetected is oh so common. Did it even require a sting? Yes,
there are a few worrisome disclosures – like routing black money through other
customers’ bank accounts (how???). Some of this could be just tall claims….
The real truth is that at the
very max, this sting shows that front line bank staff is prone to making
exaggerated claims. There is no evidence that this actually happens. And for
sure, there is no politician’s involvement. That was just mischief on the part
of Cobrapost. Net Net, the sting shows more about journalistic rot than
anything else….
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