It was called the mother ship.

It was called the mother ship. The ship simultaneously launched Rajadeep Sardesai, Barkha Dutta, Arnab Goswami, and later in the day, Bhupendra Chaubey, among many others.

About 200 employees – camera persons, video-editors, out-door broadcast engineers, producers – people without who the channel wouldn’t been what it is – now lie in a heap. They have been jettisoned without a parachute. The mother ship is shedding weight to stay afloat. A few months ago, another 70-odd employees, including reporters, had been off-loaded. At that time too, like now, the mother ship was trying to stay afloat.

Many years ago, just before the 2008 global depression hit India, a colleague of mine was offered a position in a newly launched news channel. “The mother ship,” the person had quipped “cannot be replaced.” As shouting, screaming and peddling half-truths as news became the norm on prime-time television, NDTV held firm. There would be discussions but the decibel levels would never rise. You don’t have shout to be heard, is what NDTV believed.

“It is too slow,” a bureaucrat had once told a few journalists as the new brand of “cocaine journalism” was taking shape. I call it “cocaine journalism” because nothing seems to get past news desk unless you can bash Pakistan, paint China black or sing paeans about the government, and Prime Minister Modi. True, NDTV was slow, but it was rarely wrong. While others would “break” TV screens, or present a “World Exclusive” or a “Super Exclusive”, NDTV was content with a “Just-in” tag on its ticker.  The tag “Breaking news”, which others bandied around to get numbers, remained sacrosanct. And, when other networks were happy to just drop the news when they were peddling minutes ago turned to out to be wrong, NDTV wanted at least a two-source confirmation. Apologies on air for wrong information making it on air was a norm as was the funeral of the reporter and desk hand for making the mistake.

When anchors, reporters on other platforms passed on speculation as news, NDTV was happy to say, “We don’t know yet.”

So, what was the NDTV newsroom like?

Newsrooms across the world are one of the most hostile places. It was no different for NDTV. But there was a slight understated dignity too. It was a combination of dignity and empathy that a reporter is expected to carry when digging for news, framing reports and the critical eye of the desk when breaking down and processing news. The mixture of the two made preference of news between farmer’s suicide or a celebrity wedding clear.

Rarely, if ever in the Indian context, will you come across journalists who started their carrier as office-boys but were trained to become journalist by the organization because they aspired to be one. The organization invested in them and they tried to repay back. NDTV has several such examples. And, by God, they are good.

At another level, the simple dignity reflected on the TV debates that NDTV hosted. I can best describe that dignity by recounting an event that had Dr Roy and an all-powerful political leader of the time from Uttar Pradesh. A CD allegedly containing incriminating conversations between the politician and several public figures including Bollywood personalities, industrialists, politicians, judges and bureaucrats discussing deals and sleaze found its way to the media. The publication was promptly stopped by the Supreme Court on an appeal by the politician. On a prime-time show, Dr Roy reportedly asked the politician– “Well sir, apart your conversation with women and judge’s what else is there in the CD?” And in trying to outdo Dr Roy, the politician and started describing what the CD had! While the apex court had issued a gag-order on its publication, the leader himself- who had moved the court to stop its publication – revealed it all. Neither there was a “Nation Wants to Know” nor a “you are a coward.”

The Radia Tapes:

No discussion on NDTV is complete without a mention of the Radia tapes. Barkha Dutt, then Group editor of NDTV, was found to be talking to lobbyist of Tata Group trying to fix a cabinet berth for a politician – was indeed a sordid affair. Did Barkha benefit from her closeness with the lobbyist? The truth, although stranger than fiction, will, perhaps, be never known. What we saw was a special programme where Barkha was asked to defend herself on-air. Till date there are no criminal charges. Lobbying or tying to influence government is a violation of the Prevention of Corruption Act – 1988. The Radia tapes were leaked by corporate interest groups and used to malign, and not correct, journalism or bring more transparent process. What could have been need for that? Do you remember the word “news-trader” or “pressitute” any longer? They seemed to have been pushed to fringes now. But then, the 2014 elections were drawing near, and the alleged transgressions by journalists were put at the center-stage to create a smokescreen to discredit journalist.

Be as it may, how did the NDTV look? Like all humans, the organization too had its dark spots. Did it always clear the test of neutrality as journalism was is expected to? Of course, not. Many genuine stories did get spiked for one reason or the other. There were also those stories that were buried. Reports that played out early morning or late night. It had and still has preferences, slants, and biases. But what perhaps it never did was shut off the other side completely. The differing view, unlike what we see today in many “national news networks”, was given space albeit grudgingly. That is how it differentiated itself from the rest.

Those who worked in NDTV found it simple and complex at the same time.

 Simple because the process of what made and didn’t make news were cast in stone and sterling in nature. It was complex because there was an understated bias as well—a bias that had as its base personalities. It worked out to be an unsaid glass ceiling. As a result, there are two kinds of employees in NDTV. Those who were born “great” and others who aspired to be so. The latter would always be slightly short of the mark, and the former always ahead of the mark. Merit mattered but it wasn’t about merit only. It was that little sleight of hand that was used to keep the newsroom going. It is no secret that some who were at the helm had no business in being where they were. And, that is NDTV’s greatest failing. It bracketed and boxed people and employees quickly and forever.

Today as the mother ship is in distress, there is one thing that comes out clear—it is hard to build an institution and even harder to keep it going.

In the epic Ramayana, Laxman is once asked about how do people die?  Laxman replied—people are unassailable, but they die because of what they do.

The seemingly simple answer has much value and context for this mother ship.