For whatever it is worth, I disagree completely.My views have been blogged at http://mayanmuse.blogspot.com/2009/04/goa-festival-issue-of-ethics.html#...

No, this is not a cheap attempt at publicizing my blog,I personally believe that the awards being leaked simply evidences the cavalier lack of disregard for the process that the jurors have and that in all possibility, the selection process itself is more of a "you scratch my back and I scratch yours" kind of quid pro quo. A well organized event should take care of such loopholes. It is also a myth breaker for those who"wait with bated breath for the results" and whose "anticipation and joy" are lost by the spilling of the beans! To me they seem to be very much similar to the loyal housewives who wait with bated breath every evening to see "kyonki saas bhi kabhi bahu thi", they forget that they are being given something orchestrated and manipulated to suit the interests of those running the show. Something similar seems to happening with these award shows. Oscars never were "spilled", Grammy's too. Speculation around it is rife and everyone has a shot at it.
Will Variety run a story if it knew for certain who the winners are in advance? You bet they will and they should. The "news" is not who won, but that it was revealed before hand.
Sorry for the rant and the time taken.
Vinod Natesan
PS
As far as revealing Satyam's fraud goes, PWc auditors also did not catch it, US which has more Nobel Laureate's in Economics did not see the meltdown comming, Warren Buffet has hired a new portfolio manager, don't expect journalists who are to report events after they occur to predict these, the boys in suits who fly personal jets are paid to do that.

Good pot shot Anant, couldn't agree more!

I am told that, India is famous for fortune tellers and Crystal Gazers... Perhaps ET needs to consult with many of them continuously to give the market some trend indicators of things to come in the future...we will not let our Statisticians & Economists lose sleep over the futures and markets because they have lots of unfinished work to estimate the state of the secular nature of our population in the year 2050, the number of villages having water scarcity problem then, the number of villages that would not still have electricity, estimating the level of pollution particularly around the holy townships of Haridhwar, Rishikesh, Kedar, Badri, Sabrimala etc...

Pause

ET is known to stoop to these levels. And so does the TOI. Everyone and their uncle cry hoarse about the lack of journalistic values. But has that prevented people from picking up the paper in the morning and reading it? Especially when there are so many credible alternatives like Business Standard. The fact is you get the paper you deserve!!!

i am completely agree with you, ET did it again. it seems they are organizing the Goa fest & AAAI is working as event manager. i think there is need to revamp the whole content, which will help govt. to build good policies....

I agree with you Anant!

ET is busy busting award (read 'ethically embargoed') stories, when essentially being a financial newspaper it ought to have better concerns!

Too bad for the daily- neither ethically right, nor path-breaking financial stories! Only standards getting realy really low! Not expected from ET at all!

ET is fast becoming the 'News of the World' of India. Won't be surprised if it makes it to the Times Now breaking news.

Times of India & Eco. Times are advertorial papers and not newspapers, anyway. They are also blatant mouthpieces of all the teiups, marketing activities, launches that the group does. Not so significant launches and insignificant news item from reaedrs' perspective, like iDiva or advertising awards are notonly covered, not only put up on front pages, where they don't deserve to be anywhere near front pages, but the editorial too is shamelessely full of praises for the launches, etc.