The Seedy Sting

What India TV did on IPL players was a morality test, that’s all

To club India TV with journalism is a joke. Journalism, for all its faults, is an exercise in truth. India TV is a channel that has been roundly identified with reincarnations, ghosts, magical mountains, haunted police stations, Rakhi Sawant and anything bizarre which will make a rural farmer’s jaw drop. For some time now, it has also been acting as a PR agent for Baba Ramdev. Watch the imperious demeanour of the man on the channel and you feel as if he owns it.

To such a channel, which would in a sane society go under the tag of ‘seedy’, the ethics of a sting operation wouldn’t be anything to worry about. But sting journalism is an ethically dark-grey area. At the very least, it needs to be exercised with some thought about the merits of doing it. If Amar Singh can do a sting, and if CNN-IBN can do a sting, there must be a difference in motivation, intent, the limits to which they would go and, above all, whether it is virtuous, a quality not in fashion anywhere nowadays.

The present IPL sting is without any virtue. It targets the weak and gullible. It uses volume play by approaching three dozen targets in the hope that five will be stained. Even News of the World—another paragon of seedy journalism—went about its sting on Pakistani players in a better way. The NOTW reporter portrayed himself as a man wanting to be involved in a criminal activity and was then offered an expose of an already existing  racket. The India TV reporters went as a sports management company offering a legitimate business deal and then baited young cricketers. They were creating a criminal enterprise where none existed. They were essentially doing a morality test on cricketers. And what gives anyone the right to do that? Especially India TV?

All such travesties are done in the name of the greater common good. Look around and there are a thousand better stings to do. The public good in ridding the IPL of cricketers of weak character would be somewhere at the very bottom.

After all, it is a game run by a private club where the teams are the toys of the rich who themselves are trading corruption charges against each other.

About The Author

Madhavankutty Pillai

Madhavankutty Pillai has no specialisations whatsoever. He is among the last of the generalists. And also Open chief of bureau, Mumbai  

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