Reading the article and the discussions by the readers and the author of the article gives me a bad feeling. It is indeed a fight in the 4th estate in AP. I do not read any of these papers at present though I used to do so earlier, but by reading the article and the discussions it appears the Mr. Murthy is trying to safeguard the interests on one party against the other to gain popularity. So nothing much here...

Dear Srinivas, I thank you for the interest you had taken to deliberate on the content of my article. I made clear that Journalism and Mass Communication research follows a rigid methodology and within which one develops appropriate discourse. I clarified to your doubt whether I had considered the question of news and views in my research. As part of my methodology, I defined all the terms and main aspects of my study clearly in Part 1. I once again request you to kindly spend some time on it. My definition of Direct Refernce clearly removes ambiguity over it. The author means the direct references constitute clearly views and not news. You are trying to impose your defnition of a mix up-views and news to it. But, my statement is very categorical. For example: Devendar Goud partilo prastutam untoone Telagana pi tana vaadam gattiga vinipinchalani prastutam bhavistunatly telustondi (Views). 18 tarvata ne parti lo ni telagana vaadula to tadupari charya gurinchi samaalochanalu jaruputaarani anuktontunnaru. (Views). The same statement becomes news if it is written like this: Devendar Goud partilo prastutam untoone Telagana pi tana vaadam gattiga vinipinchalani prastutam bhavistunatlu Eenadu ku teleparu (News). 18 tarvata ne parti lo ni telagana vaadula to tadupari charya gurinchi samaalochanalu jaruputaarani kooda aayana telipaaru(News). Likewise, when we analyse stories of Eenadu and Sakshi we go by setence to sentence and then arrive at the story as to what it is. Most of the direct references to Eenadu and CBN fall under this category. As for your understanding of the sample, for your clarification, I did not study a sample of 30 papers during TDP rule and 30 papers in Cong rule. I had stated in my methodology clearly that I had taken a sample of 30 papers since Sakshi is launched and compared them for the same dates with Eenadu. That means my sample constitutes papers from March 24 to April 23, 2008 of both Sakshi and Eenadu. Therefore I compared the news and views of both papers at the same time. As for Pplepally-Jadcherla SEZ, credibility factor got automatically invoked due to first Sakshi condemning the story appeared in Eenadu, and when Eenadu and ETV aired the story retorting Sakshi, and when all other political groups including the recently elected MLA Dr. Mallu Ravi visited it, the Eenadu version got credibility as most of its findings were correct. As a researcher I had taken this story for a case study and in this Sakshi is clearly on its investors¿ side in trying to defend and lost. That is all.When I quoted this, you try to divert the topic saying that SEZ¿s are controversial in general. It is not the subject of the story in quesiton. The subject of the story is how this SEZ did not spare even a burial ground to the residents of the villagers and how the villagers were deprived of right to employment in the beneficiary industry under the SEZ. As for comparing the TDP and the Congress, you need to be kind enough to study deeplly what was the genesis of Cong 100 years ago and what was the genesis of TDP. Congress was started by AO Hume and noble patriots of the bygone years, and it was a largely a democratic conglomerate with moderates and extremists both having their sway till Gandhi arrived on the scene. Today it remained a monopoly of Nehru¿-Indira¿s family.Whereas TDP is largely one family party, having NTR¿s family members, namely Harikrishna, Daggubati, CBN etc in it since the inception. It is getting largely democratised during CBN¿s rule who kept NTR¿s family members away for long. But, one day when all others vanish, it remains to be seen whether TDP as a party can remain or split into TDP Devender, TDP Nagam, TDP Yanamala, TDP Erram Naidu like Cong split into Cong (O),Cong (R), Cong (S), Cong (I)etc. . But it is too early and hasty to make any speculations over it. I have been repeatedly telling that media remaining political party friendly is not an unethical or wrong. Just as individual is entitled to his own political affiliation under article 19 a, freedom of speech, Eenadu and Sakshi can have their political affiliations. Problem is not there. But such an access should be used for the benefit of people by deeply analysing their respective political allies¿ ideologies, constructively criticising and setting an agenda. My research mentioned where Eenadu flawed in its approach and my research equally pointed out Sakshi for the same. As a researcher I belive, Eenadu was in side TDP for a long time. But in case of Sakshi, the Cong party inside Sakhi.That is where Eenadu still continued to be professional and to under stand this you need to study Eric Louw and John Stuart Mill¿s liberal democratic theories, besides political theories. Thus, Eenadu could play the role of a loyal opposition as a Fourth Estate is meant whereas Sakshi is failing to do it because its inside spin doctors are using it to attack CBN and Eenadu wasting its precious space and valuable news print. There are a lot differences between you as a reader and the author as a researcher trained in the regimen of methodlogy in Journalism and Mass Communication. I may not be able to answer all your personal views.It is enough if you understand that is it worth attacking CBN and Eenadu or is it worth to provide a better analysis and logic of the existing government policies, criticising constructively. The credibility of anypaper lies in the latter. Thanks for your comments again and I wish to conclude this here once for all irrespective of the fact whether you appreciate my research, findings and the painstaking exercises in the analysis brought about. Regards Prof.CSHN Murthy.

I am very happy to get my comments back in place and I am very happy that the author replied to my comments. I am not convinced with the answer that ‘direct reference’ is considered as views…. . Acccording to the author’s definition given for the term in the article direct reference is reporting something on your own with out referring to someother (sou-moto). My question was mixing views(opinion) and news(fact) . One more question I raised was about the ‘Trustworthiness’ (not newsworthiness) of the news article . The author gave an example of ‘Zadcherla-Polepally SEZ’ . There is difference of opinion among the people about SEZs. SEZ has both positive and negative sides of it . It is all about how you perceive it and how you project it . How would Eenadu or Andhrajyothy or Sakshi report this issue if TDP is in ruling side ? It would be more technical to take samples for 30 days during TDP’s rule and take samples for 30 days during Congress rule. While studying observe how the newspapers are reporting issues like farmer’s problems corruption etc. I would like to give one example. During Rajiv and Indira Gandhi’s era Eenadu created awareness about the ‘family politics’ and ‘internal democracy in cong party ‘ among readers with editorials on the issue . Now he is ignoring the fact that TDP is based on same ‘family politics’ . Forget about internal democracy in TDP . During CBN’s rule when ever the govt plan to implement a new decision (say power charges hike) Eenadu used to ‘prepare’ people mentally .That is what Sakshi is doing now . Now Eenadu is trying to provocate people even before govt thinks of taking a decision . In the future if power shift happens these two newspapers may exchange their roles. Eenadu was inactive on farmers problems during CBN’s rule and hyperactive now . Andhrajyothy adapted a sadistic approach by introducing columns like ‘Rythu atmahatyalu’ which shows no of farmers killed themselves on daily basis. (see http://www.andhrajyothy.com/mainshow.asp?qry=/2008/mar/30-3farmers) I don’t understand how the author found that Eenadu’s credibility still sustains. When ever there is some elections(by-elections or local body elections ) Eenadu always tried to create impression that ruling party is going to loose heavily, surprisingly ruling party did well . (see the sentence : Credibility of Eenadu Sustains largely due to its survey reports. Some where in the article-3 author called Eenadu a ‘professional paper’ . I would like to seek clarification in what way it is professional and who are these two professionals . ( See …..in the case of professional papers like Eenadu where articles of Neerja Choudhary and Ramachandra Guha appear regularly. TQ

Dear dsamanth, Your reply is patently attacking Ramoji Rao and CBN,as usual of you in your earlier letter, and quite silent about a present Chief Minister, namely Dr.YSR, who declared that he owned an assigned land worth of 3000 acres for over two decades and it was absolutely unknown to him till he became the Chief Minister. What a clever Chiefminister to cheat the entire state at one go and yet get away with impunity? Your reply is patently silent about CBN standing open to an equiry into his assets as well as the assets of the present Chief Minister by a sitting judge or the HC or SC. Even Dr.Jayaprakash Narayan the founder president of Loksatta, BN Raghavulu of CPM and Narayana of CPI welcomed such an offer for an open inquiry into the assets of the both former and the present Chief Minister? But, everybody has seen how YSR had innovatively diffused the issue by offering to probe the assets of all the MLAs since the formation of the State Assembly-which is nothing but a mockery of the very idea of cleansing the politics. As for your observation that Ramoji declared in the affidavit before the Supreme Court (It is not Supreme Court, it is High Court) that he hated the Congress is absolutely false. I got the copy of the affidavit, through Eenadu bureau in Delhi here, which was even published in Eenadu in full text to nail Dr. YSR¿s canards in this regard. Ramoji clearly opposed in the affidavit perpetuating a single family rule (in the name of Nehru gratuitously). But, then Ramoji is an individual and a citizen of this country, and he can express his freedom of speech guaranteed to him under Indian Constitution article 19a. It is this he exercised through his media Eenadu and ETV--which he is entitled to. But Congress is a regisgtered political party under Indian Constitution, which wields power, and YSR, being Chief Minister of the state, is under allegiance to the Constitution to serve the sate without fear, favor and partiality. These two cannot be brought at par to show that two equal forces at war. It is rediculous if the state is equated to media to justify an illegitimate victimzation and vindictivness. Atleast the concept of fourt estate is not that. It should be kept independent and not to be victimzed. Just because Ramoji exposed the scandals of Brahmani, Obulapuram, Raghuram Cements, Outer Ring Road, Gokul Trusts, Trishul Cements, Jadcherla SEZ, Dharmana¿s illegal land acquisition, etc, YSR as a government cannot indulge in vindictive colonialist administration. Congress and YSR are part of political process and Governance and Ramoji is an individual. There is no quid pro quo here in any reckoning. However, attacking Eenadu by Sakshi, as a paper, does not show its originality, independent identity, culture and growth which is very important as a new paper to stabilize. By repeating what Eenadu has done, if at all Eenadu had done a crime by not exposing all the misdeeds of CBN ( that we researchers donot uphold as we believe that a media cannot expose all the misdeeds of a government and there is no law laid down that a paper can be called impartial only if exposed all the corrupt activities of a government), Sakshi does not prove a shade different. In any case before the arrival of Eenadu, Telugu journalism was very traditional and mild. With the arrival of Eenadu the media scape had taken a new course. Before arrival of TDP of NTR genre, Congress was monopolistic without an opposition. But, with the arrival of TDP the political landscape changed. With the arrival of Sakshi, now journalism appeared to be taking a different course, and our study focused on these strategic differences of approach to political processes between these two papers. Media researchers do not agree that media should remain as an independent entity free from political interaction. John Delane, the proponent of Fourth Estate and John Stuart Mill of Liberal Democratic Processes welcomed media-political interaction for the healthy media development to play adversarial watchdogism or loyal opposition while being part of democratic process. As a researcher, and a former journalist and correspondent, our duty is to analyse things in the frame work of methodologies and I in my earlier reply delineated how the spin doctoring was indulged in by both sides. I showed where th ey differed in the context of Eric Louw¿s theory too. Beyond that I have no other interest and I especially do not mind whether one hates Eenadu or likes Sakshi--It is upto the individulal right again which I respect. But researach doesnot go with individuals biases but operates within the regimen of methdologies and criteria. It is the time for every citizen of the State to reflect whether to go ahead with the prejudices or prides of one¿s own or to look at the other side -- a better governance free from corruption---- which is eating into the vitals of the State now. Prof.CSHN Murthy

Dear Mr. Murthy, I think the larger problem is not whether Sakshi is right or wrong. It is the politicisation of media and the consequent identification of specific vested interests closely with the political powers that be. Sakshi in a way is probably just continuing what Eenadu honed into a fine art. And the situation was made worse in Andhra Pradesh by the near monoploistic domination of Eenadu. Ramoji Rao himself submitted in his affidivait before the Supreme Court that he is a sworn enemy of the Congress. His anti-Congress stand is nothing new and frankly nothing wrong with that. That was one of the starting points of the deep seated enmity between Congress and the Eenadu group. My only submission is this. Sakshi is now targeting Ramoji and Eenadu, the same way Eenadu targeted YSR and the Congress. Both are partisan, but atleast there are 2 sides to the story now. Also why the naivete, almost all the top leaders of the TDP are from humble backgrounds and have built up multi crore business and real estate empires in an extremely short span of time. The excuse of documentary evidence is very flimsy. CBNs declared assets before the last elections were upward of a 100 crores. So were Devender Gouds. If you want me to believe that there was some Ambani like business at work, I will be incredibly surprised. I think the biggest scandal of the last decade has gone completely unreported. That was the award of 800 acres of prime urban land (worth about 8000 crores now and atleast 2000 crores then) in the Gachi Bowli area to a spurious sports management firm which claimed connections with an American Corporation in the name of sports promotion. For your information, the company was headed by a close associate of CBN. It took a decision by the current government backed up to the hilt by a High Court which went hammer and tongs at the earlier government for the brazen misdeed. EENADU WAS QUIET when it happened. So much for watchdogism.

I am really grateful for the views expressed by the reader dsamanth & srinivas. The reader alleged that I glossed over the Eenadu and Chandrababu nexus. I clearly mentioned the nexus between Eenadu and TDP from the time of NTR. In fact Eric Louw, whose theory of “the Media and the Political Process” is applied to the AP Journalism now, clearly says that liberal democracy (John Stuart Mill) would allow media and political interaction to the extent media acts as a loyal opposition and offers adversarial watchdogism . John Delane, the proponet of the fourth estate and the former editor of The Times, approves of such media and political processes. I have extensively dealt with Eenadu’s spin doctoring and adversarial journalism and even compared it with the similar roles played by the Hindu and the Indian Express from time to time. The reader is advised to read the part two & part three of the article which is a continuation of the first one. The following paragraphs of part two clearly establish the unbiased approach followed in the research. ….. Especially Eenadu has the reputation of having indulged in spin doctoring between 1983-1995. For that matter even Indian Express and The Hindu had indulged in spin doctoring in the post independent era. ….. During the entry of NTR in to Andhra Pradesh politics it was Ramoji Rao who became part of NTR’s political strategies ……………………………………………………………enabled Chandrababu consolidate the rebel MLAs against NTR at Hotel Viceroy. The reader also alleged that I did not consider the fact that Eenadu did not report the corruption during the time of Chandra Babu Naidu and reaped a lot of benefits. Though this is not part of my present research as I had taken present 30 days sample for analysis, I wish to bring to the reader’s notice that Eenadu did report on Somasekhara Commission report on Eleru scam, Telgi-Srisailam Yadav-Babu link in the fake stamp scandal, Euro lottery scam (Kolaru krishnamohan) etc in the first page. Chandrababu openly stated several times that such stories in Eenadu irked him too both in the Assembly and outside. As to the benefits, the reader should know that present Sanghi Village where Ramoji’s film city is situated was doled out to Ramoji by none other than the late Kotla Vijayabhasker Reddy(during 1989-94). As for Eenadu group escaping the scrutiny of Chandrababu’s government, the same benefit was extended to YSR also who immediately after becoming the Chief Minister confessed that he was in possession of 3000 acres of assigned land which he enjoyed over two decades without paying a penny to Government as tax. If Chandrababu were to be pin pointed for his glossing over Eenadu deliberately, obviously one should admit that Chandrabau extended the same to YSR also. The reader also alleged that I looked over Vemuri Radhakrishna’s (Andhra Jyoti) proximity to Chandrababu Though this is also not part of my research, I would like to ask the reader whether there was any documentary proof of Vemuri’s link with Chandrabau like the latter produced regarding the people who were involved in investing in Sakshi. Is the reader pointing out simple personal relationship between Naidu and Radhakrishna. Till date I had to come across any evidence in this regard. Even Chief Minister YSR repeated such allegations against Chandrababu but when the latter contested, the matter ended in silence. Chandrababu proved himself by repeatedly offering to stand for any enquiry against him and his assets both in the assembly. He even demanded YSR to come up with the findings of 23 inquiry committees appointed against him. But till this date YSR had not responded to these challenges. At the end, the reader is running himself into the same mire of Sakshi’s spin doctoring technique of attacking Eenadu and Babu wasting the precious time. Why Sakshi a sacrosanct, according to the reader, is wasting its precious print space against Eenadu and Babu—is the key part of the analysis, if both Eenadu and Babu are not posing a threat to Saskshi and Congress as well? The reader Srinivas alleged that I did not speak about Margadarsi in my article. The reader is requested to know the Supreme Court judgment that Eenadu and Margadarsi are two independent entities and attack on Margadarsi cannot be construed as attack on Eenadu. By the same logic, when two news papers are being focus of research, the author cannot astray himself into Margardarsi. If the author has to compare the violations of Margadarsi, which however, do not amount to a scandal, then the author has to compare the violations of Margadarsi with the scale of violations of land allotments/land leasings to Brhamani Steels, Raghuram Cements, etc. of Y S Jagan Mohan. Reader Srinivas also raised the question of ‘direct reference’. He also raised a question about the study of newsworthiness of Eenadu and Sakshi. In journalistic research, ‘direct reference’ is considered as ‘views’ not ‘news’ and hence I made it an aspect of spin-doctoring. As for ‘newsworthiness’ of stories, the author studied the 30 days of sample. Eenadu published a story in March on Jadcherla--Polepally SEZ affected poor groups. The land was obviously allotted to the investors in Sakshi. Sakshi has published a counter story stating that Eenadu article was a fraud and a cooked up story. In response to this Eenadu and ETV live telecast the sufferings of the affected people in Polepally-Jadcherla SEZ. To quote a latest few of trustworthy stories-- story on Dharmana Prasada Rao’s illegal acquisition of land in Srikakulam, pipeline blasts of Devadula project, etc. So far Sakshi couldn’t bring out one such story. Readers are therefore requested to criticize the research work within the framework of its methodology and sample limitations. Prof.C.S.H.N. Murthy

You can not come to a conclusion by studying and comparing two newspapers for a month or so. It needs along (may be years) and detailed study . I have been reading Eenadu for many years and studying more than one newspaper for nearly two years. As far as Eenadu is concerned it shows different sides of coin at different times . During CBN’s rule there used to be all positive news(you feel everthing good) .Ever since Congress party came into power newspaper changed its approach . Nowadays the headline fonts and the graphics makes the paper looks like crime movie wall poster. It seems they are deliberately filling the paper with such negative content. Sakshi seems to have all positive content now .But tomorrow if CBN or someother party comes into power it may adapt negative approach .The writer of the article ignored many things in his comparative study . He quoted the documentary evidence(what is in it?) shown by CBN and ignored the court ruling against Margadarshi(Eenadu’s sister concern) . The author quoted the financial irregularitie of Sakshi’s management and all together ignored the Margadarshi Scanadal. It seems the author don’t like ‘direct reference’ . Does he mean that direct reference is unethical ? Does he mean that write what ever you want and just leave a clue instead of referring the person‘s name ? Is that a standard ?The author should have analysed the trustworthiness of the news articles in question instead of comparing the heading . The author said that Eenadu and Andhrajyothy reduced focus on CBN and relegated him to innerpages .It doesn’t matter main page or middle page, but which side of yours is shown does matter .The line between ‘news and views’ has been removed .Why did the author failed to find this issue ? One more thing our great newspaperman do is strategic ignorance and opportunistic blow-up. The author complained that Sakshi is referring to names of other news papers or their editors . It has become quiet common thing in andhra press for sometime . The author finally concluded that there is no ethical journalism in Andhra. Great finding . Srinivas

While it is nobodys brief that Sakshi is an impartial, objective newspaper, the article itself is a deeply flawed partisan piece. The fundamental assumption of the article that Eenadu¿s reporting is the baseline for "Truth" vis-a-vis Sakshi can be deemed as the villain is patently false. It would be downright silly to even deny Eenadu¿s close association with the TDP and Naidu and for that matter his close links with non-Congress politicians of various hues. There a lot of well founded speculation about the benefits Mr Ramoji Rao reaped from his close association with the TDP. A lot of his group companies have faced the heat from a hostile YSR while they were able to avoid any scrutiny under a friendly government. Just like Sakshi, Eenadu too has been extremely selective and scant in its coverage of corruption and nepotism under Naidu. Chandra Babu and Eenadu are getting a taste of the same medicine they administered their political and business rivals. The author conveniently avoids mentioning Chandra Babu¿s extremely close ties with Vemuri Radhakrishna, the Managing Director of Andhra Jyothy. All in all, the article is as one-sided, lacking in impartial research as the object it intends to attack

I am from AP,lives in USA. I regularly follow EENADU as well as sakshi The findings of this author are nearer to ground reality good work