Trump blasts Cohen over tape disclosure
Washington, July 25 : US President Donald Trump blasted his former attorney Michael Cohen on Wednesday after a secret audio of a recording between the two about making a payment to Playboy playmate Karen McDougal was aired.
In the 2016 conversion aired on CNN's "Cuomo Prime Time" on Tuesday, Trump, then-US presidential candidate, and Cohen could be heard discussing how they would buy the rights to McDougal's story about an alleged affair she had with the leader years earlier.
Trump denies the affair and took to Twitter in the morning slamming Cohen. "What kind of a lawyer would tape a client? So sad! Is this a first, never heard of it before? Why was the tape so abruptly terminated (cut) while I was presumably saying positive things?
"I hear there are other clients and many reporters that are taped - can this be so? Too bad!" Trump tweeted.
Court filings said federal prosecutors have 12 recordings from Cohen and according to CNN, the recording with Trump was among those 12.
The tape's release made a further dent in the relationship between the President and Cohen, who was the former's previous steadfast supporter, personal attorney and long time confidant.
Cohen is under criminal investigation by the US attorney's office in Manhattan for his personal financial dealings, including the payment he made to porn actress Stormy Daniels on Trump's behalf before the election.
However, he has not been charged with any wrongdoing in Daniels case.
In the audio, Trump and Cohen discussed other matters, including an attempt by the New York Times to unseal the records from the President's first divorce and mentioning pastor Mark Burns, a Trump supporter.
Cohen's attorney Lanny Davis provided CNN the September 2016 recording and said Trump's attorney Rudy Giuliani had been "falsely disparaging" Cohen.
Giuliani contended that the recording would not harm Trump after news came last week that the recording of Trump and Cohen was among those obtained by prosecutors.
trump, however, expressed anger over the recording last weekend on Twitter, calling both the seizure of the recording and Cohen's creation of it "inconceivable".
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Union government assumes full control over TV ratings, TRAI role curtailed: Report
New Delhi: The Union government has assumed full control over television audience measurement, removing the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) from oversight of the ratings system that underpins the country’s ₹36,000 crore television advertising market, according to a report published on Wednesday.
The report in Mint said the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting (MIB) now has exclusive authority over the framework governing how television ratings are measured and regulated. TRAI had been entrusted with oversight of TV ratings in 2012 during the UPA government’s tenure. TRAI is no longer mentioned in the relevant policy document, effectively vesting sole authority in the MIB.
The report said TRAI will continue to regulate other aspects of broadcasting, including channel pricing, advertising caps, interconnection and distribution norms, service quality and compliance standards. Its role in determining how ratings agencies track viewing behaviour has been withdrawn.
Television Rating Points (TRPs), which reflect viewership patterns, guide advertisers in deciding where to allocate spending across channels and time slots.
A government source quoted in the report said the ministry could modify TRAI’s decisions even when the regulator oversaw broadcasting.
A former CEO of Prasar Bharati told the newspaper that the MIB has historically regulated rating agencies through licensing and guidelines, and by holding them accountable under existing norms.
During its tenure overseeing ratings, TRAI had taken decisions affecting the broadcast sector, which included capping advertising time at 12 minutes per hour following complaints about excessive commercial breaks and it now remains unclear how these matters will be addressed under the revised arrangement.
Satya N. Gupta, former principal advisor at TRAI, was quoted as saying that merging regulatory functions with policy oversight and removing an independent regulator from the process was a retrograde step.
TRAI’s involvement in broadcasting had earlier attracted criticism as well. In 2012, its consultation paper on quantitative limits on television advertising was viewed by some as overlapping with the Advertising Standards Council of India’s code. Subsequent recommendations covering television audience measurement, ownership of news channels and issues such as paid news had also raised concerns among sections of the industry.
Television ratings have faced scrutiny in recent years, including during the controversy involving the Broadcast Audience Research Council (BARC), where officials of the ratings body were prosecuted over allegations of manipulation of viewership data.
