Arnab Goswami’s channel caught ‘dancing on the grave’; is it high time to shut ratings again?

New Delhi: Under the guise of presenting news, Arnab Goswami’s alleged ‘entertainment channel’ Republic Bharat hit yet another low on Wednesday when its anchor Shweta was caught trivialising the expected landfall of Cyclone Biparjoy.

As always, the self-styled ‘godman of journalism’ refuses to listen to any of the advisories issued by the government to news channels against any hyperbole on sensitive matters.

Goswami remains confident that he will be able to get away without any repercussions, as he continues to operate in an unbridled manner under the garb of supporting the government.

In the blind race for TRPs, Goswami’s channel has now made fun of an impending national disaster in a TikTok-style programming - using visuals of a hurricane in Florida.

Full video of the alleged dramatic Republic Bharat show on Cyclone Biparjoy, where its anchor Shweta can be seen dramatising an impending natural disaster.#republicbharat #arnabgoswami #cyclonebiparjoyhttps://t.co/Czc6lPnIIc pic.twitter.com/0FdNAt3u8u

— NewsDrum (@thenewsdrum) June 16, 2023

Goswami’s defiance requires more serious attention from policymakers than mere trolling on social media.

Goswami, who was single-handedly responsible for the suspension of TRPs for the news genre for allegedly manipulating ratings in connivance with former BARC India CEO Partho Dasgupta, has time and again proven that he can go to any extent to win the TRP race.

And for this, Goswami appears to have never shied away from ‘dancing on the grave’. Be it the tragic death of actor Sushant Singh Rajput or Russian-Ukraine crisis or an impending national disaster in the form of Cyclone Biparjoy, Goswami has always made a mockery of the intellect of policymakers and his channels’ viewers.

He is doing everything for the survival of his loss-making channels - which are heavily dependent on advertisers’ monies, apart from the other unknown sources of funding. Evidently, both require his channels to be on the top ratings-wise.

The hyperbole on Indian television news channels had briefly stopped during the 17 months of rating dark period but resumed immediately with the return of ratings for the news genre.

The ratings for news channels made a comeback on March 17, 2022, following an order issued by the I&B secretary Apurva Chandra. And so did the hyperbole.

The hyperbole, trivialisation and fake news touched a peak within a month of the start of ratings. So much so that the I&B ministry had to issue a stern warning in the form of an advisory on April 23, 2022.

Also read: Government asks news channels to stop sensational and fabricated reporting

More than a year into ratings, which evidently remain vulnerable to all sorts of manipulations using external interferences and certainly do not represent what India watches, Indian news television is in its worst phase. It has gone beyond just trivialising the sensitive issues and now it can be seen flaring up communal divide every evening for TRPs.

Make no mistake, not a single channel is untouched by this epidemic. Of course, the sides they take may be different but each channel is doing the same thing. And all of this comes at the cost of serving real news to the common man.

In case the government is serious about making its public outreach programmes and their benefits to the beneficiaries, the ratings for the news genre need to be put into abeyance once again.

Else, the news channels will continue to prioritise hyperbole over the welfare of the people in the rat race of TRPs.