News offers so much more to the viewer now than it ever has in history. We get a bigger bang for our buck, thanks to the efforts of networks like _ABP News_. The versatility of their model

not only gives you news, brilliant insight and analysis, but also entertains and satisfies your basest voyeuristic instincts – all this while talking truth to power and fulfilling the public

service news is supposed to. Maybe I have gone too far – so they not only give you the news, brilliant insight, analysis, but also entertain and satisfy your basest voyeuristic instincts.

Okay, still too much? They give you the news and also entertain and satisfy your basest voyeuristic instincts. What? _Ab bhi zyada hai_? Fine. How’s this – they entertain and satisfy your

less than making history) the outstanding coverage of former Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) minister Sandeep Kumar’s sex video coverage on _ABP News_ on August 31 (it took me a few days to recover)

when it was brought to my notice that the channel had taken _Newslaundry_ and our errant reporter Manisha Pande to task for this piece. Before I go on to extol the virtues of _ABP News_’s

hour-long, we-told-you-so special. Sample the video below which has clips from an hour-long show which aired 3 days later. For those who don’t have broadband access and can’t see the video,

I shall quote the pearls of wisdom as we go along and we will all learn so much about journalism, pre-emptive, predictive reporting; the state of women, and how they are exploited in this

country of which we (at Newslaundry) know very little, as pointed out by accomplished anchor and keen understander of women and gender issues, Dibang, which has no doubt contributed to his

exceptional journalistic career. I wish my appreciation for _ABP News_’s work could be as dramatic as their work itself, but text does not lend itself to _rongte khade karne wala_-background

music from a Ramsay brother horror show (or some stolen bars from the soundtrack of _The Dark Knight_). Nor does it allow for the thrill and fear-inducing voiceover, right out of a low

budget disaster film. And even if I used video, I doubt I could match the _ABP News_-like impact because as Dibang The Understander of Women stated on the show, _“jo likhne wale hain, humare

samaaj pe kitni kam pakad hai unki _(those who write have such a weak grasp on our society)_”_. Clearly our _pakad_ cannot match Dibang’s on _samaj_ or women. _“ABP NEWS PE SABSE PEHLE AYA

YE CD”_ Yo! Haters gonna hate but three days after they first aired the _“apattijanak”_ (objectionable) video, _ABP News_ was proud of what they’d done. What _ABP News_ also did wonderfully

was replace the done-to-death “_Times Now_ /_CNN-News18_ /_NDTV_ /XYZ IMPACT” with the more down-to-earth, we-told-you-so model of news delivery. The almost hour-long episode on September 3

 was a pat-on-their-own-back assertion that they gave us news before it had happened or anyone had claimed anything. A full three days before any of the silly details on the sex tape issue

tumbled out. If you thought only channels like _MiracleNet_ or _Devi TV_ predicted the future with their religious shows,  turn to _ABP News_. George Bush’s pre-emptive strikes are nothing

compared to _ABP News_’s pre-emptive reports, telling us what has happened to whom, before anyone has claimed anything or even tracked down the affected party. _“POORI ZIMMEDARI SE KAHA THA

SHOSHAN HUA”_ If ABP News’s ability to know news before anything has happened or been claimed is not _zimmedar bhavishyawani_, I don’t know what is. On August 31, they ran for at least an

hour (if not two) special live coverage of a video clip (they keep referring to it as “CD”. Possibly because knowing basics of technology – along with spell check and factual accuracy – are

not part of _ABP News_’s journalism. CDs, pen drives, What’sApp are delivery and circulation tools. The content is in video format. You could hope electronic news professionals at least

would get nomenclature right, or you could just be thankful that they’re doing _zimmedar bhavishyavani_). The video shows a man and woman having sex. The man appears to be a much thinner

Sandeep Kumar. As anchor Abhisar Sharma said on air at the top of the hour, this “CD” was given to _ABP News _by an unknown person. So all they had to go on as far as this video was

concerned, was that it was provided by an unknown person. Nothing in the video suggests there is rape. It merely shows two people having sex. Yet ABP carried it as a “scandal”. Mind you,

they made no allegation of rape or any other specific claim – it was simply  a scandal. If this speculative _bhavishywani_ a la Asaram Bapu is not enough to impress you, you don’t deserve

such _zimmedar_ news.   Besides the only reason _ABP News_ does this is to satiate the voyeur in us, until someone can get some facts to report as news. Selfless public interest news means

plunge to any depth just to keep us viewers hooked. _“BLOG PE APNE LEKHON MEIN ABP NEWS KI KHABARO KO LEKAR NISHANA SAADHA GAYA”_ While _ABP News_ was wildly speculating – with background

music and footage playing in loop – for the greater public good, to save TV news from becoming a reality show, ungrateful news professionals like Shivam Vij and Manisha Pande were attacking

_ABP News_’s fine reportage on vile platforms like _Huffington Post_ and Newslaundry pointing to silly details like absence of any facts or evidence _at the time _to back _ABP News_’s fine

reporting on the 31st of August. They had the audacity to question the “scandal” based on the information available at hand, which was nothing other than a video from an unknown person. But

they are mere mortals. They can’t look into the future and know what would happen three days later, the way _ABP News_ evidently could despite saying on air that they could not verify or say

anything about the video when they first ran the story.   But when has lack of information of any facts deterred the brave? _ABP News_ senses _shoshan_ even before you can say ‘show’, so

don’t shun what they claim. Only the slow wait for facts to emerge. Fittingly _ABP News_ gave it back to Manisha Pande through their anchor Dibang of understanding-women’s-issues-well fame.

_ “EK EK KHABAR JO ABP NE DIKHAYI THI WO SAHI SABIT HUI” _ As a scandalised voice uttered the line above (set to a noisy background score), I again understood the need for speculative

reporting– all for the sake of the viewer and the truth. Because three days later, there was proof that  there was indeed a scandal, just as _ABP News_ had claimed earlier (without really

saying why). As more facts will emerge, perhaps _ABP News _will make it up as they go along. Say something completely contrary emerges a week later (as has happened in many cases over the

years, from wrongly-reported Church attacks to Tuktuki Mondal’s case), it matters not. _ABP News_’s _zimmedar_ panel probably has already seen that in their crystal ball and will factor it

into their reportage today. Since merely reporting facts is no fun and one takes over-the-top hysterical positions on a whim, in case some contrary facts emerge later, I am hoping _ABP News_

will go with headlines and hashtags like  “_Dekhiye kaise_ ABP _ne ki thi ghatiya kisam ka_ news coverage _aur humari bhadd pit gayi! _(See how _ABP_ did bad coverage and got us royally

screwed!)” Hashtag: #AbBoloABP (they had a hashtag #ABBoloAshutosh, not joking). Or “_ABP ki behad hi ghatiya kisam ki C-grade _horror film type coverage_ ka mukhauta utra _(The mask is

ripped thanks to ABP’s C-grade horror film-type coverage)”. Because if similar headlines congratulating yourself on your preemptive strikes inspire trust and confidence, so will the ones

above. Promise. If you are selfless enough to stoop to where you do now, you _ABP News_ will have no problem going a bit further, I am certain. _“PIDIT NE LAGAYI ABP NEWS KI KHABAR PAR

MOHAR”_ And nothing says we are brave news professionals who put news before everything better than using the victim of the sex video as a shield to cover attacks on themselves. On September

3, _ABP News_ played a bit from an interview with the lady in the sex video, in which she says she has been exploited, followed by the same old angry and breathless voiceover guy saying –

_“Pidit ne lagayi ABP news ki khabar par mohar _(the one who is suffering has put her seal of approval on _ABP News_’s report)_”. _ Also _“Aaj is mahila ke saamne aane ke baad un sab logon

ko karara jawaab mila hai _(Today with this woman coming forward, all those who doubted have got resounding reply)._”_ If this does not want to make you kneel and bow to _ABP News,_ what

will? They are willing to plunge to such depths only to get you and me to watch them. That is called commitment to profession.  _ABP News_ sinking to Mariana Trench-level depth on content

for our sake is one thing, but to use a possible victim of a sex video as your advocate in a trash talking contest with a small-time news critique portal was too low – even for _ABP News_,

who like the much-hated Arvind Kejriwal, only entered the gutter to clean it up and thus got a little dirty in the process. But still. Why drag her to your defense? You have Dibang, no? _IF

THAT MOHAR WAS NOT ENOUGH, ROLL OUT THE NETAS. _ But not just the lady in the sex video, _ABP News_ decided to play video clips of AAP’s Arvind Kejriwal (who they can’t get enough of

attacking at other times), who had fired the minister and rebuked him publicly the evening the story broke. _ABP News_ used Kejrwal’s claims to prove they were right. Because you know – it’s

Kejriwal, and as _ABP News_ knows he can say and do no wrong, might as well use him to justify your actions.  _Even though no one knew there was anything dubious about the video at the time

that the statement was made_. After using the Delhi Chief Minister’s statement to show _ABP News _was on the same page as Arvind Kejriwal (yay!)_, ABP News _went back to trashing him. In

case the Delhi CM’s word was not enough to convince cynical Congress and Bharatiya Janata Party supporters that _ABP News_ had done _zimmedar _reporting, they played Sambit Patra and Ajay

Maken’s video clips, telling us how the case was that of exploitation. Now the holy trinity of Kejriwal, Maken and Patra had said what _ABP News_ had gone to town with three days earlier.

Case closed. And of course there is Dibang. It’s water-tight. In case all this wasn’t enough to _lagao “ABP ki khabar pe mohar”_, they also stated “_Humein apne sach aur darshakon par

bharosa tha_ (we have faith in our truth and our viewers).” Because you, dear viewer, knew what had happened before anyone knew what had happened, even before _ABP News_ aired clips of the

video perhaps. You are the real heroes. You may well have a better eye for detail, considering how _ABP News_ wrote the name of our website as “Newslaundary” while using our logo (which,

incidentally, spells out the name fully). When you’re focused on the greater good, who has time for details like spell check? _ “MAHILA KO HI KATGHARE MEIN KHADA KIYA JA RAHA THA.”_ This

statement yelled in _ABP News_-style on their channel sealed it for me. Because the _zimmedar_ news channel claimed that our reporter Manisha Pande was pointing fingers at the woman in the

video. Actually no, she was putting you in the _katghara_ and mocking your journalism and conduct. Yet again, _ABP News _put the victim of the circulated video in front to fight their

battle. Why go so low when you have Dibang for defense ? When it was time to cut to the panel debate, Dibang went with this: “_Jo likhne wale hain, humare samaaj mein kitna kam pakad hai

unki. Mahilaon ki sthiti, humare samaj mein, humare samaj ke alag alag jagahon mein kaisi hai, uske bare mein kitni kam jankari hai unke paas, ye baat ek bahut saaf ubhar kar aati hai, saaf

dikhai deti hai. Aur ye ek tareeke se aatma-manthan ka samay bhi hai un sab ke liye jo is tarah ki baatein likh rahe hain (Those who write, they have such a weak understanding of our

society. The condition of women in our society, in different parts of our society, they know so little of this – this is made clear. And it is time to introspect for those who write like

this).” _ Dear Dibang, agreed Manisha doesn’t understand women’s issue. Neither does our Managing Editor (a woman) nor our Editor-in-Chief Madhu Trehan (you may know her) – none of them

could truly understand women’s issues and _“mahilaon ki sthiti”_ like you and your team (all the heads in decision-making positions being men and all). So, like, thanks for the _atma

manthan_ advice. And do let us know if _Newslaundry_ could start a mentoring programme under you to understand women’s issues better, because I am sure your insight into that space will

greatly help their careers as journalists.