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Wednesday, September 3, 2025
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Tele-scope

Trump shows how to make headlines—and Indian TV channels show what to make news out of

Maybe we needed to be diverted by happy images of PM Modi enjoying the company of beautiful animals or by the Congress leader's critical comments on cricket captain Rohit Sharma’s fitness.

Live Maha Kumb coverage, govt’s PR blitz—after stampede, misinformation trivialised failure

The public relations campaign for the Maha Kumbh stops at nothing. The message is loud and clear: A ‘dubki’ at Sangam is an absolute must for the faithful. Otherwise…

TV news was incensed at Ranveer Allahbadia’s ‘cringe’ remark—only to telecast it ad nauseam

Anchors such as Navika Kumar, Arnab Goswami, Zakka Jacob, and Vasudha Venugopal held lengthy discussions on Ranveer Allahbadia. CNN-News18 devoted three debates to him in a single night.

12 hours after Maha Kumbh stampede, TV news back to ‘unshakeable faith, excellent arrangement’

Watching television on Wednesday morning you would have thought that nothing had happened just six hours earlier.

Trump’s return—US media scrambled for words, Indian TV news divided between fear & fascination

All the trumpeting of Trump 2.0 on Indian news channels was soon muted by Trump’s executive orders on illegal immigration and ending birthright citizenship.

TV news covered religion with no Hindu-Muslim angle this week

With the focus on ‘Rituals, Reverences, Rites,’ news channels barely have time for other stories. The Delhi Assembly election campaign occasionally peeks in and out.

TV news showed a glimmer of balance in 2024—once. Then it went back to BJP-Modi bias

Midway through 2024, Hindi and English news channels found their sense of balance. Once Congress lost Haryana and Maharashtra, they went back to openly supporting the Modi govt.

TV news has an ‘Allu vs Revanth’ war on its hands—it’s hunting for conspiracy, ‘photo proofs’

For TV news this week, ‘Allu Arjun vs Revanth Reddy’ was a clash of the titans of Telangana politics and Tollywood—and they were not going to miss out on any of the action.

New temples, old Hindu-Muslim script. Sambhal is Hindi TV’s latest prime-time theatre

Since the communal disturbances last month, Sambhal and its temple trouble have remained in the news. Still, the non-stop coverage of the Hanuman temple and the three idols is exceptional.

At first, Bangladeshi media denied attack on Hindus. Now, India’s TV news stands vindicated

The indignation became shriller as news channels replayed Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath’s remarks last week on ‘Babur, Bangladesh and Sambhal'.

On Camera

India-Pakistan marriage breakdown that British can’t stop crying about

Ever since the Love Is Blind: UK episode dropped, there has been a collective meltdown online over the separation of Pakistan-origin Kal Pasha and Indian-origin Sarover Kaur Aujla.

A Rs 33,000 cr ‘banking fraud’: ED’s case against Arvind Dham, Amtek’s web of ‘500 shell companies’

ED has accused Amtek promoter Arvind Dham of controlling web of nearly 500 shell companies operating as a layered structure, with up to 15 levels of indirect ownership, to divert funds.

‘Real-time, all-climate’ explosives detector could enhance airport & border security—no dogs, no swabs

Bengaluru-based CeNS designs accurate, portable, and cheap sensor using surface-enhanced Raman spectroscopy. It could significantly reduce risks at vulnerable choke points. 

For Indian Mercedes, Asim Munir’s dumper truck in mirror is closer than it appears

From Munir’s point of view, a few bumps here and there is par for the course. He isn’t going to drive his dumper truck to its doom. He wants to use it as a weapon.