Could “Republic TV” By Arnab Goswami Become India’s Most Dangerous News Channel?

Arnab Goswami is back.

The most polarizing journalist in the history of this country with his flamboyant style of oratory and a penchant for “debating”, Arnab Goswami has charmed/annoyed/swept/aggravated his critics for a long time.

He began his “superstar news anchor” gig at Times Now, resigned from the same after a row with the producers and within the span of a 100 DAYS (YES. 100 DAYS.), he comes up with his own news channel by the name of “Republic TV”.

Sounds inspirational and to a large extent, it really is.

But is it all too well, too perfect in the world of Mr. Arnab Goswami? Or is it just mere speculation about his biased reporting and marketing gimmicks to highlight ONLY the good things about our honorable government?

Let’s dwell into this, a little :

Arnab has been accused plenty of times to be “too nationalist”, albeit for the wrong reasons and more of a debater in his own discussion rather than a moderator. This makes his debates more about shouting, name-calling and cheap tricks rather than allowing an actual flow of debate which allows people to reach a conclusive decision.

Even if we allow that, what makes it startlingly alarming for us is Arnab’s viewership.

The most polarizing journalist of this country has claimed a massive 52% viewership stake ever since he opened Republic TV.

But his viewership claim isn’t short of controversies, either.

Check out this article where it is reported as to how Arnab is using unethical tactics with cable networks to claim a higher viewership.

Even then, if we omit this as a “glitch” (hate me for this, later), Arnab’s marketing tactics about nationalism and journalism are the real problematic elements about Republic TV which make it extremely dangerous for Indian media.

He says it’s necessary to be a nationalist to be a journalist.

Ballsy words. Really ballsy words, Mr. Arnab Gosawmi.

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Now, you may have us believe that your pseudo nationalist ideology about journalism makes you a flag bearer of a new-age movement in Indian media but what it essentially does is highlight your own hypocrisy.

Nationalism as an ideology hasn’t been popularized as an echo-chamber mentality until recently, where people in this hypothetical chamber continue to believe that it is only their approach towards nationalism which is right and all others are wrong.

Compare this to all the debates hosted by Arnab and you have a perfect comparison.

Now, the high viewership and the nationalist mentality combine to form a volatile mixture of swaying the population because news channels are the most easily accessible forms of media to gain information.

If this information is fabricated, altered, tampered with, paraphrased, forced, recycled, exaggerated and saffronized to an extent that the audience is left with nothing but a feeling of disgust and hatred towards the opposition party and our ever-so-mischievous nature of our neighbors (Pakistan, in this case), IS THIS REALLY WORTH IT?

IS THE PRICE REALLY WORTH PAYING TO BECOME THE MOST VIEWED NEWS CHANNEL IN THE COUNTRY?

Add that to the controversy where Arnab has been accused of intellectual property theft for viewing the evidence gathered during his stint with “Times NOW” on his new channel or the Arnab Goswami vs Shashi Tharoor case where he’s under the scanner for defamation, the idea of forced news becomes more and prominent and we start to question the lengths of jurisdiction of of Mr. Goswami.

What he gets in return is viewership but what the country gets in return is a population which has a herd mentality and feeds on Arnab’s pseudo nationalist trends.

And that’s why, he’s the most dangerous man in Indian media with the most dangerous news channel in the country.

Will he shut his critics up? Only time will tell.

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