Twittersphere is, well, atwitter with jibes, ripostes and fulminations over the Nira Radia tapes that Open magazine has published, showing conversations between her and top journalists. We present some of them:
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@zauq (Arif Attar) says, A journalist's job is to monitor centres of power. Somewhere along the line they forget.
@amishra77 (Akhilesh Mishra) wants to know: Now that Outlook has published Nira Radia tapes, it is as mainstream as it gets - surprising then that TOI / HT / Times Now / CNN-IBN silent.
Bengaluru-based journalist @vilakudy (Rajaneesh) wants to know: What happened to the Open magazine website? Has it been hacked?
@rsrirams (sriram Raghunathan) believes, If the expose by Openthemag is true, its the biggest coup in days
@codevalley (Narayan Babu) tweets that NDTV hits rockbottom when they twisted and turned an SMS from OpenMag Editor and distorted it!
@Harry_Jerry introduced a bit of humour into the serious discussion by tweeting: Barkha, Radia...two women talking ovr the phn & not a single mention of anything pink, shopping or a kitty. Fake! Fake!
Thespian @AnupamPkher (Anupam Kher), reacting to a tweet by @Abhay_Jaiswal : The biggest names in the media are as corrupt as our netas, says: hope that is NOT true. That will really be SAD.
@NR_Tatvamasi (NR Vithobha) says, Looks like dmk lobby,anti mms faction in cong feeding sardesai,others, pm side feeding open magazine outlook to discredit these guys. enjoy
Entrepreneur @maheshmurthy (Mahesh Murthy) tweets, Bad enough 4 @bdutt to b incompetent, causing deaths in Kargil 99 & Taj 06 bit.ly/dbwz48 much worse to be integrity-less. He also adds: With 2,000+ tweets & reach of 800,000+ uniques, @bdutt fixer story surpasses ToI+HT readership Now will they pick it up?
Meanwhile, the journalist in the eye of the storm, @BDUTT (barkha dutt) tweeted:
Struck by the bizarre irony of being accused of favouring a man i have never met ( raja) and have always attacked in print and on TV. Gnite!
Later on, she commented again, saying: @BDUTT (barkha dutt) Smear campaign astounding. Onus on Open and Outlook to prove quid-pro quo of any kind, before villifying individuals and their work.
Jumping to her defence, ex-colleague and CNN-IBN's @sardesairajdeep (Rajdeep Sardesai) says, conversation between source and journo is legitimate. if quid pro quo is shown, expose it. else, dont destroy hard earned reputations.
@vilakudy (Rajaneesh) points out, Media: The bird of same feathers. Some sing, some sulk.
@zauq (Arif Attar) points out: Looking at these 'angry' reactions, by eminent journalists, we now know how all of them work.
@sujeetpillai tweets a more urgent need: How does one hire Niira Radia? She seems powerful enough to get my income tax waived for next 6 years!
While @BDUTT barkha dutt is 'sure the truth will speak for itself'.
In response to the outrage about her conversations with Radia, Barkha Dutt tweeted, @BDUTT: Smear campaign astounding. Onus on Open and Outlook to prove quid-pro quo of any kind, before villifying individuals and their work.
@BDUTT: Amazed Angered and saddened at inability of some to distinguish between gathering info and ridiculous labels like lobbying/powerbroking.
@BDUTT: Radia was a valid news source for DMK camp. She gave info on Karunanidhi, and sought my analysis on what Cong may do next. Valid journalism.
Dutt washed her hands off the entire controversy by tweeting @BDUTT: And lastly, bizarre to think any government bases decisions on cabinet formation on what journos say!! End of discussion folks. see ya
