With reference to “The Newshour will end, mercifully” by Amrit Dhillon (November 6), the writer has used some strong adjectives regarding the style of anchoring by Arnab Goswami. In fact, apart from your esteemed daily, some others too have criticised him strongly. I do not hold a brief for Goswami. But let me narrate some facts to illustrate why Times Now has been India’s No. 1 English news channel for the last few years.
Goswami’s style was very abrasive, no doubt. But he was abrasive only to those who would never directly answer his blunt and pointed questions. All Newshour debates were full of such blunt questions. Were these irrelevant? I often wondered why some of the guests who had skeletons in their or in their parties’ cupboards agreed to take part in the debates. It was sheer photo-op, but little did they realise that they had made fools of themselves. Goswami asked awkward questions on behalf of the common man. Hence, the channel became popular.
Again, he showed the greatest respect to deserving guests like renowned lawyer Aryama Sundaram and diplomat G Parthasarathy. He hauled up only those who had something to hide. Is that wrong? Now that Goswami is out of Times Now, there could not be any genuine reason for vile criticisms. I am sure the TRP (television rating point) of other English channels will go up due to his exit, but one feels that the overall viewership of English news channels in India will decline.
Nirupam Haldar, Kolkata
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