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Thursday, August 14, 2025
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Tele-scope

TV news must do what it’s advising BJP after 2024 results—introspect

A warning to traditional news media: change or the public will go for a changeover—people are looking for more than what you are offering.

TV news did during 2024 election what it has been doing for 10 years—be in Modi’s corner

'We’ve never seen a PM like this before,' exclaims a News Nation editor. An ABP News anchor introduces Modi as the man without whom you couldn't dream of a ‘Viksit Bharat’. Times Now promotes itself as ‘The channel PM Modi trusts'.

Both Modi and Priyanka Gandhi are now on TV—only one of them is asked follow-up questions

Almost all of Modi's TV interviews follow the same pattern: compliments, praise, and topics he has addressed in his rallies. No tricky or difficult questions are asked.

From roadshows to studio shows, Modi ‘interviews’ are everywhere—what has changed?

PM Modi has opened himself up to questions in the middle of his campaign—he’s less formal, more spontaneous. He’s on a boat with TV 18 India, strolls in a garden with India Today correspondent, and walks inside a building with India TV. 

Newspapers are pushing Modi to inside pages more and more while TV channels remain faithful

Why are PM Modi and the BJP no longer commanding the news the way they did at the beginning of the Lok Sabha campaign? Is this a deliberate pull back or has the news media changed track?

DD News anchor calls Congress wealth survey ‘communist ideology’. It’s following BJP’s lead

Clips from BJP members' speeches fill each bulletin on DD News. Before, during, and after the shows, there are ads for ‘Modi ki Guarantee’.

Modi’s Newsweek Q&A was without questions—and how ANI interviews in 2019 and 2024 compare

The widely accepted belief that the BJP and its allies will win the 2024 Lok Sabha election comfortably informs Smita Prakash’s questions to PM Modi.

Vast difference in news TV and papers’ treatment of Kejriwal—but uniformity on Gaza

While TV news channels all but called for Arvind Kejriwal's head—and his resignation as Delhi CM—newspapers simply published reports on the observations of Justice Swarana Kanta Sharma.

Modi’s Katchatheevu remark irked Indian, Sri Lankan newspapers. TV news is still on his side

Most news outlets pointed out that in a 2015 RTI response, the BJP government replied that the 1974 and 1976 agreements with Sri Lanka did not involve “ceding’’ any Indian territory.

Social media has made news more graphic. Torture by Russian military is latest example

Before social media, depiction of violence on news was the exception—graphic visuals were either not shown on TV or in newspapers or the images were blurred. This is no longer the case.

On Camera

Asim Munir wants to be guardian of the Middle East. He’s fated to fail at home

Countering insurgency needs the Pakistan Army to demonstrate a political will that ties leaders at the centre with those in the borderlands. But it may not have the imagination.

Slashing GST on waste can unlock Rs 1.8 lakh crore, high tax hurting circular economy goals—CSE

Centre for Science and Environment in new report makes case for rationalising GST on waste material, saying most informal operators can’t afford high tax & it also hinders recycling.

India, US troops to undertake joint military exercise next month, first after Op Sindoor

21st edition of annual joint military exercise will be held from 1 to 16 September, aimed at sharing military tech, operational best practices & disaster relief coordination methods.

Modi’s ready to risk it all for farmers. Farm reform can answer Trump with new Green Revolution

Standing up to America is usually not a personal risk for a leader in India. Any suggestions of foreign pressure unites India behind who they see as leading them in that fight.