For observers of television news media’s decline, it may no longer seem odd for Indian news anchors to sit inside the BJP headquarters to host shows airing the party’s propaganda. But what if they telecast bytes and lift videos from a publicity arm of the BJP?
Following the recent elections, the tone of shows on a large section of television news media had suggested that all the results were in the BJP’s favour – even though the party lost the Himachal Pradesh assembly poll and the municipal election in Delhi while registering a historic win in Gujarat. And as channels raced to heap praise on the BJP and prime minister Narendra Modi, two shows on Aaj Tak and India TV on December 11 took it a notch above, by lifting all their bytes from Modi Story – a Twitter handle and website associated with the BJP that had published them months ago.
