R. Rajagopal, Editor of the Kolkotta based English Daily ‘The Telegraph’ is a keen observer of media practices, its history and contemporary trends . He regularly follows The AIDEM and especially ‘Kathayattam’, wherein renowned journalists Thomas Jacob, former Editorial Director, Malayala Manorama and Rathnakaran Mangad, former Chief News Editor, Asianet News TV discuss media history, new trends, politics and the world at large. Here’s what R. Rajagopal posted in the comments section of ‘Kathayattam’ after watching its third episode.
“What an episode! It is heartening to hear such anecdotes when it is fashionable to write the obituaries of the newspaper. No thrill can match the adrenaline rush of rapidly changing the page on the trot when something breaks late at night. I think this high — more potent than any that alcohol can induce — is what keeps many wedded to the news desk, probably the most thankless and unsung role in a newspaper. It was so redeeming to hear the Kennedy story. Credit must also go to the interviewer for asking the question, whose calm and assured style complements perfectly with the unassuming and graceful manner in which Mr Jacob speaks. The Kennedy assassination — I think the murder came to be associated, if not it created the genre, with the brand of “Where were you when JFK was shot?” to symbolise personal moments that became forever associated with epoch-making events — was the highlight for me but the episode was rich in other insights too. The astonishing penetration of newspapers in Kerala, the water tax game changer that bridged the gap between everyday life and news, the caste considerations that influenced coverage decisions, Shanta’s admirer, the ignored lover’s vendetta, crisis-management by standing in and filling the opinion page over and above the daily grind and the delightful trick played by the film producer on the newspaper using seemingly conflicting excerpts from the reviews….
Great raconteurs make us remember long-forgotten stories. The jinx about inaugural editions reminds me of a story I had heard in the early 1990s. Not sure if true but I get kicked about it. A newspaper was being launched from Delhi. The team was mostly made of young journalists or beginners, hotblooded and fleet-footed. The editor was a veteran from a national daily, who loved throwing his weight around and making the rookies feel small. On the night before the first edition, there was the usual madness in the art room (an extinct newspaper space where phototype-set strips of news were pasted on to a page for being filmed and made into a plate for printing). The chaos in an art room is difficult to describe: suffice to say a fish market appear less noisy compared with a good art room, with people shouting, cursing, cajoling, haranguing, pleading and threatening to meet the deadline. In the middle of such glorious disorder, one enterprising subeditor decided to get even with the haughty editor by pasting strategically a small piece of confetti-like paper on the printer’s line (a legal requirement that needs to mention the names of the editor and the publisher and the address of the printing press). In established papers, that subterfuge would have been caught out: one person is specifically tasked to check the masthead dateline and the printer’s line after a few copies are printed every night. But this was done so artfully that when the first edition came out next day, the printer’s line was intact but for one gap: after the word editor, there was white space and no name.
An inquiry was ordered and the conclusion was that the piece of paper must have fallen accidentally on the printer’s line whose edges had spillover glue and it got stuck there, masking the editor’s name. I am told the enraged editor barged into the newsroom, slammed the first edition on the desk and screamed, using two colourful phrases to convey his exasperation: “M**** and c*** run this place!”
I wish The AIDEM would add English subtitles to Mr Jacob’s accounts. These are priceless lessons in journalism that must be made accessible to audience beyond Kerala too. Thank you, Mr Jacob, Mr Ratnakaran and The AIDEM.”
Click here to watch the Kathayattam episode
