Cash for comment

On the CNN-IBN website Gaurav Kalra criticises the BCCI for dismissing concerns over its contracts with leading commentators Ravi Shastri and Sunil Gavaskar as "frivolous and trivial."

Imagine a senior reporter is discovered to be on the pay roll of the Congress Party. When confronted by the editor in chief the reporter argues he is under no compulsion to toe the official party line. A Congress party spokesperson concedes the contract exists but says when this reporter speaks it is "purely his opinion". With that knowledge in the public domain can the reporter continue to hold the trust of the viewer? Does his position in the organisation not become untenable? Why else was he on the pay roll unless it was to make the Congress Party's case? Where is the return on investment if what he spoke was "purely his opinion"?