Has Indian media ceased to be that real fourth estate of a democracy but has become a megalomaniac as well as a cynical, judgemental, dominating, greedy, arrogant, biased apparatus in nature & character?

Author’s View:

Our Indian media has fallen into the trap of commercial gambit so badly that the foundation and principles of it is under serious threat. The worst part of it is the affiliation of media houses / news channels to various political parties because of vested interests and their vested investments….

Let me start from some of the basic examples….

1) While social injustice on the basis of caste lines is still not tackled effectively, it is strange on the part of media and its reportage which normally fans the flames vigorously than playing a responsible role of a social change agent…let me tell you why…A dalit raped or assaulted is reported in big captions as “DALIT RAPED OR ATTACKED”….In 90% of the cases the rape or assault is committed by their neighbour, relative or friend who is from the same caste or section of society…Had it been a crime of social discrimination or caste based hatred then people would obviously expect media to paint the picture clear but for every crime committed on a section or community or religion or caste it is not social discrimination or untouchability reasons or caste based division every time……In fact media also fails to highlight the wrongs, if any, that has happened from the so called victim’s side either. Further, crime in India is happening across the board and against every single community or caste…so why is it when dalits or muslims are involved media reports with a special mention and unduly favour them with extra mileage in coverage? Is it not so that media is actually invigorating or reinvigorating the divide to make it more complex and not allowing the wounds of hate between communities or castes to heal?

2) A simple remark of Narendra Modi that he would sympathise with a puppy when it gets hurt by coming under the wheels of the car that one was not even driving, is to illustrate the level of sympathy or care a human being would have even on a poor creature or living being. But media wanted to quickly distort it as comparing muslims to dogs and was pumping information only to fan the hatred and create deep divide between already sensitive communities over flowing with criminal elements waiting for such opportunities to cash in and resort to terror or spread ill-will.

3) While BCCI & its office bearers have made a mockery of cricket & its administration, it is a sport being openly commercialised owing to ever increasing popularity, right from seventies (1970). BCCI was never or is nowhere now a government enterprise or had involved public money. The money or wealth that BCCI accumulated were from voluntary contributions, by patronage of people in different ways & means and not anyone was forced to watch or spend on cricket. As a result of that cricket is no longer a sport, but a billion dollar industry making hundreds of cricketers as millionaires every year. Our Indian media chose to ignore the national corruption and issues of Railway scam / Law minister reducing CBI to a typist etc, but chose to cover betting & match fixing for whole 15 days making a criminal waste of news time which should have covered issues of national interest.

4) The so called big time journalists/ reporters/ anchors with halos around their heads from every English news channel (many of them are even honoured with PadmaShri), has an arrogant belief that whatever they say, speak of and report is the ultimate truth and during news room analysis they conduct a trial, prosecute & pass judgement on anything or anyone they want to. They also present facts by deliberately twisting it, fight like school children over petty issues, riding high on their egos they try to pin every speaker down, argue on issues without maturity or clear understanding or deliberately to project & impose their view and forcibly package news with the way they want, as well as spice it up in the manner they feel or their political & businessman bosses would want it to be presented.

5) Print media has another Brahmastra to hit someone below their belt. First run a full page story heaping blame on someone and indulge in full scale mud-slinging. Thereafter, a couple of days later print a small apology in some corner of the paper stating that the entire report was an unintentional, uninformed error. Now they have succeeded in inflicting the damage that they want while this apology column wouldn’t even be noticed by most of the readers. One big example being the case of Times of India reporting on their own about Narendra Modi that he had flown 15000 Gujaratis from Uttarakhand within a week after the disaster struck (which is quite an impossible task in given conditions) and trying to portray Modi as a liar initially, but later eating humble pie by withdrawing the report & publishing an apology through a small column few days later.

Please find the apology published by Times of India below:

6) From the Barkha Dutt & Vir Sanghvi episode of involvement in 2G scam, we were even given with the rude shock of life that, it is after all media that acts as a conduit between business class & politicians to carry out their shoddy deals & loot our country of resources and deprive our people of deserving progress & development. So, media has even stooped to the levels of a pimp by arranging & facilitating platforms to connive & perpetuate corruption conveniently, as our politicians, businessmen & government officials do.

7) Even in reporting the news about a disaster in which several people have lost their precious lives, we see media channels queering on top pitch that “we are the first to report, we are the first to bring it to notice”…..when a scam is blown off lid, news channels run helter skelter to highlight & take credit as it was their channel or organisation that brought things out in open….Sadly, they have become so moronic that they forget the fact that they are doing their duty of social service by serving people with information and they are not doing a favour by presenting news or by bringing it to the doors of every citizen.

There used to be a time when Doordarshan was the only channel and people waited for that couple of half hour slots when news would be telecast….that news would encompass every quarter of information around the globe making it the real NEWS by name & content. Now we have hundreds of news channels beaming 24 hours of rubbish and issues covered by them does not even amount to 10% of worldly information but in every way they are presented with bias, cynicism, distortion and high-handedness.

Adding insult to injury is political appointments leading to retired judges like Markandey Katju assuming office as Chairman, Press Council of India and using his discretion to pick and choose how and what is to be reported. The coverage given to Sanjay Dutt episode by electronic & print media was ridiculously overwhelming that they ran stories relentlessly to secure favour from public and courts for a criminal who certainly had / has been acting against national interests and was involved in an act of terror. It was for his Dad’s congress background that influenced courts to perceive that a fully grown adult of 30 yrs who was also a drug addict, had bought AK-47s for just his personal safety despite not having any serious threat to his life and having a dad who is in the power corridors of government. Also he felt he is still unsafe with allowed range of weapons like pistols, but he badly needed AK-47s in early nineties (1991), which was not even supplied to army men in full scale those days. And media fought tooth and nail to glorify him, his past and try to secure his pardon from all avenues.

Media is no more an institution or profession that used to be equated as social service and noble enterprise but has become a megalomaniac or demon with hunger for power, money and omnipotence. Can we afford to  just keep watching this systemic and systematic deterioration of an institution that is the lifeline of democracy and is the eyes, ears & mouth of common man?. Is it not time that we rose upto the occasion and demanded some sort of regulation through public forums?.

The least we can do is we can completely ignore such biased reporting and stop attributing importance to such coloured, distorted, misrepresented, unilateral stories they run with malicious intent and misguide people instead of living to the true requirement of media as a watch dog of people. When we make them feel the pinch on their viewership whenever they try to overstep their brief, they will understand the importance of being right & upright. We must make them realise the fact & their duty, that they only present information as is, where is & what is basis and not with several modifications, distortions, additions and deletions as per their choices or whims & fancies or with ulterior motives to portray their political or corporate bosses right or for TRPs sake or for jacking up of their revenues or amassing illegal wealth.

Jai Hind…!!!