Rajdeep Sardesai and wife Sagarika Ghose quit CNN IBN

Submitted by TellychakkarTeam on Fri, 07/04/2014 - 18:09

Finally, the inevitable has happened. Money and muscle power has won over and silenced the resilient spirit of journalism, at least for the moment. Rajdeep Sardesai and his journalist wife Sagarika Ghose have brought the curtains down on their glorious journey in CNN IBN, a media organisation that they built with their sweat and blood. Rajdeep was the Editor-in-Chief and Sagarika helmed the responsibility of a Deputy Editor.

Rajdeep sent out a text message that served as an official confirmation of his resignation. "Proud of what we achieved. We started channels from scratch and built them by putting journalism first,” the text read.

His wife Sagarika, opted to tweet her final adieu.

Goodbye CNNIBN. God bless!

— Sagarika Ghose (@sagarikaghose) July 3, 2014

Both Rajdeep and Sagarika had gone on a month's leave after bigwigs of Network 18 including founder Raghav Bahl quit in quick succession. With Mukesh Ambani buying out all the media ventures of Network 18 for an astronomical sum of Rs. 4000 crore, Rajdeep was left with no option but to make a backdoor exit from the very office that he had painstakingly built. In fact, speculations were rife since a month that Rajdeep and Sagarika would quit in the first week of July and the same came true today. We remember how at a media interaction of Humshakals, Ram Kapoor asked a CNN-IBN reporter if Rajdeep had quit. When she said, 'No, he is on leave,' Ram made a fervent appeal to Rajdeep on camera asking him not to quit. But guess this time David had to lose to the mighty Goliath (read Ambani).

With Rajdeep out, a headless CNN-IBN needs a new leader to charge forward. The new management is expected to take over from 7 July and speculations are already rife that Barkha Dutt will move out of NDTV to helm CNN-IBN. However, the feisty anchor herself denied this news and rubbished it as mere speculation.

Sahara story entirely speculative; they've not spoken to me.If there's ever any news at my end, you will hear it from me :-)
— barkha dutt (@BDUTT) July 4, 2014

For now, there is no clear confirmation as to where the husband-wife duo would be heading to next. Rajdeep, reportedly has plans of penning down a book while Sagarika it is believed will join some other channel, Headlines Today as per speculations.

Let's wait and see if a comeback is on cards. As of now, may be the time is ripe for journalists of the younger generation to take over and herald in a new change.