Harsh Goenka slams news channels even as his brands aid the toxicity

New Delhi: RPG Enterprises Chairman Harsh Goenka on Sunday took a swipe at news channels in the context of the CBI dropping charges against actress Rhea Chakraborty in Sushant Singh Rajput’s death.

Goenka took to X to taunt news channels, stating: "Nice job, Indian TV media. You hounded Rhea Chakraborty like a witch in a medieval trial—no evidence, no shame, just TRPs. Who needs facts when you have flashing graphics and angry panels? For me, journalism died that day !"

Nice job, Indian TV media. You hounded Rhea Chakraborty like a witch in a medieval trial—no evidence, no shame, just TRPs. Who needs facts when you have flashing graphics and angry panels? For me, journalism died that day 😢!

— Harsh Goenka (@hvgoenka) March 23, 2025

His brand, CEAT Tyres, used to be a regular advertiser on Arnab Goswami’s Republic TV, which spearheaded the campaign against actress Rhea Chakraborty.

Through its 24x7 targeting of Chakraborty, Republic Bharat became the No. 1 Hindi news channel. It was later joined by other news channels.

According to a data insight from BestMediaInfo.com, when the character assassination of the actress was taking place, CEAT Tyres bought 2,140 seconds of advertising on Republic TV in July 2020. 

This grew nearly 4.5x the next month, with the brand increasing its advertising on Republic TV to 9,210 seconds in August 2020. 

However, this was significantly reduced to a mere 250 seconds of advertising in September 2020. 

CEAT Tyres stopped advertising on Republic TV in October 2020, when the toxicity at the news channel was at its peak following the alleged TRP scam.