#churumuri

Blinks,

Drink "AS IF IT'S YOUR LAST"...

The debasement of the editorial and op-ed page of newspapers, by turning them into the plaything of maaliks and marketing mavens, is a work in rapid progress. Hindustan Times and The Indian Express run signed advertisements by Uttar Pradesh chief minister Yogi Adityanath—an extension of the jacket ad flanking their front pages, to mark his fourth anniversary in office. In the alternative…

As the old saying goes, once is happenstance, twice is coincidence, thrice is enemy action. Or, as we say in journalism, a trend. In the space of just 20 days, two Members of Parliament have been found dead. The first, 7-time MP Mohan Delkar, was found hanging in his hotel room in Bombay in February. The second, Ram Swarup Sharma was found in his residence in Delhi on March 17. Either death by…

How the Marathi daily ‘Prahaar’, owned by M/s Narayan Rane & Sons, proves a ‘New Yorker’ right, every single morning

The legendary New Yorker writer A.J. Liebling is credited with the aphorism that “the freedom of the press belongs to those who own one”. Meaning: he who pays the piper calls the shots. The Marathi newspaper Prahaar underlines the truth of that observation like no other. *** The 8-page Prahaar, published from Mumbai and Sindhudurg, is owned by the 270-degree Konkan politician Narayan Rane. He is…

The Press Council of India (PCI), is inviting applications for the 14th Council with an amended set of rules. Advertisements inviting claims have appeared in at least 18 newspapers across the country. The Press Council is a quasi-judicial body that comprises 28 members, and a chairman, usually a retired Supreme Court judge. The current chairman is Justice C.K. Prasad. PCI was up in 1966 by an act…

Madras High Court has a new Chief Justice, its 42nd: Justice Sanjib Banerjee. Nothing new there, all high courts have a first among equals. The interesting part comes through two tweets by The Hindu’s legal correspondent, Mohamed Imranullah, who reveals that Justice Banerjee, 60, began his career as a sports journalist with The Telegraph in Calcutta. In Chennai, Justice Banerjee may find himself…

Crossword puzzles with big prizes were a big draw for newspapers and magazines in the time before the internet. The Illustrated Weekly of India, among others, ran giant puzzles to keep readers and subscribers hooked, and its wordsmith Raju Bharatan had quite a reputation setting it. As The Times of India dumbed down in the 1990s it dumbed down the crossword too, getting rid of the harder cryptic…

Dr R. Krishnamurthy, the former Editor of the Tamil daily newspaper Dina Malar, has passed on, aged 88. A full-page obituary adorns the front page of the paper in today’s issue. Dr Krishnamurthy was its Editor for 40 years. *** Dr Krishnamurthy was also a renowned epigraphist, as an obituary in The Times of India notes: “He was behind simplifying the Tamil script and introduced the Periyar…