Comments on: Pranay Gupte, No Longer Offering “Lunch” For Free

By: james dean

james dean — Wed, 18 Oct 2006 23:16:16 +0000

pranay gupte took up a position in khaleej times, a newspaper based in dubai, uae, and was fired after just 11 days. i guess that says a lot.

By: Fine editor

Fine editor — Wed, 09 Aug 2006 23:35:27 +0000

All: I worked with Pranay at the Sun, and barring contributors to the Arts and Leisure section, he had more experience in his left hand alone than did all the “journalists” working there. The Maggie mentioned in the e-mail exchange is a young, inflated-ego twit, and her attitude was, and I am sure, still is utterly amazing. So funny to see someone who thinks they are so adept when they are nothing more than a person hired due to connections and alma mater. The Augie Fields mentioned is a hack from Gannett. Indeed, the entire Sun staff, almost to a person, is sad and pathetic. Ira Stoll is an ass, seriously. I have never encountered a more socially backward person. Rude and pompous. Pranay was originally brought in to the Sun to revamp the business section, and you should have seen the reception he received from youngsters who should have been eating up his knowledge. They have so much to learn there. (And I write this as someone who also thinks many of Mr. Gupte’s “Lunch” pieces were overly fawning.) That said, he regualrly interviewed important or well-placed people, and the publicity his column provided the Sun was invaluable.) We can all, at time, be self-important, but Pranay works his a** off; the Sun treated him wrong. (As it treats Mark Tumin wrong! Find out about that story.)

By: alybaba

alybaba — Fri, 04 Aug 2006 08:58:57 +0000

Lunch with XXXX isn't exactly groundbreaking. The infamous Jan Wong has did it with the Globe and Mail in the late '90s.

And sadly, the race card is always a bad ploy, because of the boy cried wolf factor.

By: Hen

Hen — Thu, 03 Aug 2006 15:45:48 +0000

You know, what caught my attention right away was the tone of the email. Calling people “idiots” and “boys and girls” is extremely unprofessional and these days everyone knows that no email or letter is safe with blogs like Gawker around. And if you suspect that you’ve been subject to racism then it would be better to hire a lawyer and threaten to take legal action if the offenders are not disciplined rather than send an email written in very colloquial language. It just seems that Gupte did not take the situation seriously nor did he do anything to make the people around him understand the seriousness of the situation. But ofcourse is this because there was no “situation” in the first place.

By: Number Six

Number Six — Thu, 03 Aug 2006 15:12:59 +0000

Have you all seen the "Pranay Principles for Young (and Old) Journalists"? Here's a sampling of relevant maxims:

Never forget who signs your paycheck: Your publisher. It is his/her newspaper. Listen, listen, listen. Then listen more. * * * All news institutions have their flaws, just like humans do. Instead of just grumbling, make specific suggestions for positive change. * * * Take your job and your editor seriously, not yourself. * * * Explain, explain, and explain. [6: but maybe not via email?] * * * There's little point in shouting at people. Better to sweet-talk others into doing what you want them to do. A well-timed joke often defuses a tense situation. Make others feel good about themselves after they've talked with you.

And finally:

Love your employer but not too much: Never forget that once you've outlived your usefulness, you will be tossed out.

Kinda reminds me of Rumsfeld's Rules.

By: newyorker

newyorker — Thu, 03 Aug 2006 14:40:45 +0000

The Chocalate Brownie – if you read the entire article, you will also see that Pranay talks about his editor asking him to get advice from a “white journalist.” Now, there aren’t that many white journalists who work for the Straits Times and I would think that the editor would refer to this person by name and not by “white journalist.” What could of happened, since he wasn’t there for very long, is that the editor referred to another foreigner working there to get advice on how to adjust to this new working environment.

I understand Pranay has a long history of journalism but why get huffy if someone asks you to talk to a white man??? Suddenly that’s racism?? I don’t think so.

By: saurav

saurav — Thu, 03 Aug 2006 06:38:15 +0000

being a journalist in new york, i think i shall refrain from further comment. actually, no. i have to say that on the basis of the emails we see here, pranay's pulling the race card is a disgrace. perhaps there is more to it than these emails indicate. however, if this is the evidence, then ethnicity is a complete red herring here. his color certainly didn't get him banned from the four seasons restaurant.

Word.

So what's the over-under on whether he manually entered people's e-mails into the dating databse or whether he got screwed through some sms.ac type "service"? I would go with the latter.

By: The Chocolate Brownie in Mango Milkshake

The Chocolate Brownie in Mango Milkshake — Thu, 03 Aug 2006 03:49:04 +0000

newyorker: Actually, he didn't quite making a complaint about racism, but instead did a quick double-turn just as he was about to substantiate on it. Call it ego, or simply a culture shock, I think his main point then was that he couldn't take the Straits Times' culture of strait-jacketing everything into tidy compartments (which I thought was a fair comment to make). Racism was just a red herring, that's all.

By: Number Six

Number Six — Thu, 03 Aug 2006 01:01:33 +0000

Wow.

Where did he learn professionalism - Times of India?

Or maybe certain spun-out-of-control-until-they're-shut-down comment threads? Abhi, have you banned any IP addresses from the Sun???

By: newyorker

newyorker — Thu, 03 Aug 2006 00:52:38 +0000

Actually, Pranay played the “race card” in Singapore as well. He accused some of his colleagues there of making racist gestures or remarks. It used to be on his blog, but he removed it.