Cobrapost ‘sting’: Media silent, Twitter outraged

Not many media houses have as yet reacted to the purported sting by Cobrapost, claiming to expose how media owners, publishers and managers agreed to peddle content and political propaganda in return for money. These outlets allegedly agreed, in exchange for money, to run political campaigns, mythology and spirituality cloaked in political terms and a “soft Hindutva” agenda for electoral gains by way of content.

Interestingly, National Herald reporters attending the Cobrapost press conference at the Press Club of India in New Delhi on Monday, March 26, said that soon after the screening of the purported sting began, Times Now, Republic TV and Rajya Sabha removed their mikes.

Amid the silence of the mainstream media on the purported sting, commentators on Twitter expressed shock at the contents of the sting, in which media executives are purportedly seen declaring to undercover reporter Pushp Sharma that they have no problem diluting or blanking out news ‘against Hindutva’, belittling Opposition political parties such as Samajwadi Party, Bahujan Samaj Party and Rashtriya Janata Dal, or defaming political leaders like Congress President Rahul Gandhi as long as they were paid fully in advance.

Here are some of the reactions on Twitter: