The Mediaah! Dubious Achievement & Yearend Awards 2014

31 Dec,2014

So here we are: the MxMIndia Dubious Achievement and Yearend Awards. Remember, this is a fun feature that MxMIndia carries annually and the objective is to enjoy at the expense of others and ourselves.

Here we are:

The Congress under Rahul Gandhi Award for Loyalists Dumping the Party Award

To CNN-IBN business executives and editors for exiting from the channel the moment the full acquisition by Mukesh Ambaniâ€™s Reliance Industries

The Lagaan Award for Extra-Long Ad Films Award

To Pepsi-Kurkure Gharwali Diwali Ad which went on and on and on and on even as it was fun watching it

The Cheerleader Pompom Award:

To be shared by Barkha Dutt and Rahul Kanwal, for being most faithful to Narendra Modi.

The How Cold is the Water Award:

To The Week That Wasnâ€™t for gently getting its collective toes wet in tentative attempts to make fun of the Prime Minister and the BJP.

The Incredible Hulk Emeritus Award:

To Arnab Goswami of Times Now for having the loudest voice in television â€“ again!

The Last Minute Most Insensitive Headline Award:

To the Economic Times for this: â€œDamn! Malaysia Again. 162 Vanish. AirAsia this time.â€

(Wrong on most counts as well)

The Bravery to the Reader Award:

To Caravan for writing the longest stories in journalism filled with excruciatingly small irrelevant details.

The No More Bosom Buddies Award:

To The Times of Indiaâ€™s Twitter account for offending film star Deepika Padukone, women, men, people generally all over the world.

The Extraneous Noise That I Have to Suffer Award:

To Bachi Karkaria for dismissing social media with two cruel strikes and yet listening to what it had to say about disinviting Tarun Tejpal from the Times Literary Carnival.

The I Wish I Was A Writer Award:

To Priya Gupta of the Times Supplements and Medianet for writing the worst article in defence of the Times of India after the fracas with Deepika Padukoneâ€™s cleavage. Also, the How to Upset Purists, Feminists, Traditionalists, Analysts all in one Go Award.

Also: The Archaeological Survey of India Award for Reaching New Depths In Journalism Award

To Priya Gupta of Bombay/etc Times for her masterpiece (with pointed graphics) on Deepika Padukone and her cleavage appeal

The Panvati Position Award

To the Editor-in-Chief of the India Today group. MJ Akbar was hardly there, the offer was withdrawn to Siddharth Varadarajan at the 11th hour and Shekhar Gupta joined with much fanfare only to feel humbled. Hence the Panvati (bad luck in Bambaiyya) Position Award.

The Ajay Devgn Award for â€˜Aata Maazi Satakliâ€™

To Rajdeep Sardesai for giving one â€˜kaan ke neecheyâ€™ to the NRI audience at Madison Square Garden in New York City

The Hum Aapke Hain Koun Award

To Delhi journalists who were the shown the finger by the new NDA government as we now have a PM who doesnâ€™t taken then on overseas visits and prefers to bypass the very journos who propelled the BJP to winning position

The Laut ke Buddhu Ghar Ko Aaya Award

To Shekhar Gupta who switched from NDTV 24×7 to HeadlinesToday and now back at comfortable territory at NDTV 24×7

The Bagpiper Award for Doing the Daaru while Discussing what India Wants to Know

To Vinod Mehta for not shying from drinking through the extra-long News TV discussions. After all Khoob Jamegi News Jab Baithkar Peeyenge…

The Most Misused Word in TV Debates Award:

To â€œShouldâ€ for featuring in everyone: should people stand up, should people sit down but never, â€œShould TV anchors just shut up.â€

The Short Term Memory Loss Award:

To election pollsters for getting it wrong and claiming they got it right.

The 9X Award for a Non-Starter Channel

To Sonyâ€™s new GEC, Pal. Ratings are sad, this channel aspired to be a Zee killer. Alas, it virtually killed itself doing so.

The Most Promising Debut Awards

To Rajesh Kejriwal and his Kyoorius Awards. Showed the world that even boring award shows can be made be snazzy

The Old Is Gold Award

To Big FM to turn some of its stations to retro and attain ratings and rankings

The Award for organising several Award Shows

To the Exchange4media group for organising innumerable awards and events through the year.

The Aayega Aanewaala Award

To BARC, the audience measurement body for broadcasters. One expected it to happen by end-2014, but it now appears it will happen only by April 2015

The Milkha Singh Award for Promoting New Sports

To Uday Shankar and Star India for bringing sports out of the closet and converting them to super-leagues. After Kabaddi, kho-kho, lagori (7 tiles), gilli-danda?

The Down in the Dumps Award

To the Indian Readership Survey. The industry bodies may have agreed to not dispute but that didnâ€™t mean it would back it. Only one round is out of the 2013 edition, and life goes on. So do we need a readership survey, a research council….?

Contributed by Ranjona Banerji and Pradyuman Maheshwari and various others