A scam and a 24x7 TV coverage ensures a household name

Some four decades ago, US vice-president Spiro Agnew told the media, “I agree with you that Spiro Agnew is not a household name. I certainly hope it will become one in the next few months.” Which it did when Spiro Agnew became the first US vice-president to be forced to resign after being formally charged with accepting bribes totalling $100,000 while in public service. Talk of a self-fulfilling prophecy! Even if the late Spiro Agnew had retained his original Greek surname of Anagnostopoulos, he would have achieved instant recognition today. Thanks to 24x7 TV news channels, the process of becoming a household name is much quicker for an individual or corporate involved in a scam.

Just 10 days ago, not many in India had heard of the Romeheadquartered Finmeccanica or that helicopter company AgustaWestland was formed in 2000, when the Italian subsidiary Agusta was merged with British GKN's Westland. Few knew that Finmeccanica bought over GKN's stake in AgustaWestland four years later. However, from the moment Italian police arrested CEO Guiseppe Orsi on allegations of bribery over the sale of 12 helicopters to the Indian government, readers and viewers in India are being offered a crash course by the media on everything they never wanted to know about AgustaWestland, Finmeccanica, its former CEO and the present one Bruno Spagnolini, middlemen Christian, Haschke and Gerosa, Chandigarh companies Aero-Matrix and IDS, and the Tyagi brothers, one of whom is nicknamed Julie. It’s enough to make one’s head spin like the rotors of a helicopter. Alexander Pope may have anticipated all this when he wrote some 300 years ago, “A little learning is a dangerous thing/Drink deep or taste not the Pierian spring."