Journalism has become a sort of competitive screeching: What is trivial but noisy and immediate takes precedence over important matters that develop over time.
-
TED KOPPEL.
Do you watch news on television? Are you
satisfied with the level of reporting? Media is considered the fourth pillar of
democracy after the Executive, Legislature and the Judiciary. Its importance cannot
be undermined. However, what we are fed with in present times can be termed as adulterated
news. The credibility of Indian media- audio, visual as well as print media is
in dire strait. It sorely lack in content and credibility vis-a-vis the
international standards.
I am reminded of the seventies when it was
quite common to confirm a piece of news by switching to the British
Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) as it invariably used to be the first channel to
report an event. BBC always had the first word on any event of national or
international importance. Even as late as in the eighties, I remember it was
the BBC which broke the news of Smt. Indira Gandhi’s demise on 31st
October 1984, well ahead of the national channels. The All India Radio and the
Doordarshan along with the President of India Hon’ble Giani Zail Singh waited
for Mr. Rajiv Gandhi to return from Calcutta (it was the vintage Calcutta and
not Kolkata then) to ‘officially’ break the news of Mrs. Gandhi’s death and the
decision to swear in Mr. Rajiv Gandhi as the next Prime Minister of India. By
that time the nation was already plunged into a state of uncertainty since the
death of Mrs. Gandhi was already confirmed by BBC a few hours earlier. But that
was in the eighties. Whether the performance of the Indian media has improved in
these decades is the moot question? Has it played the role of the fourth pillar
of democracy with alacrity and in an efficient manner? Do we have any news
channel which is known for its impartial analysis of news and events? If one
looks for such a channel one will find none. Today every news channel is
identified with one political outfit or the other. Each and every news channel
has become the hand maiden of their political masters. Someone rightly termed
them as ‘presstitude’. These presstitudes have been able to build up an empire by
their ‘services’ to their political masters rather than to the nation and are
proud to be referred as ‘media barons’ a la ‘liquor baron’ or an ‘oil baron’. Often
their loyalty is paid off by their political masters who nominate them to the
House of Elders. Just a couple of days back I happened to read the obituary of
an ex-editor of “The Times of India” who turned down offers for a Rajya Sabha
seat as he considered such offers at cross purposes with his profession. Then
just a week thereafter a former editor of the Anand Bazar Patrika group of
publication accepted such an offer. And every time the TOI carries an article
of this former ABP editor, it disowns the views as those of the writer and not
of the newspaper. So where’s the credibility of such news items? The worst part
is, media has become self styled judge, giving decision on issue of social
and national importance by what has come to be termed as ‘media trial’. Should
we believe in authenticity of such media trials by a media which has already mortgaged
its soul to his political masters? Then there is a trend of passing on even ordinary
news as “breaking news”. Often one feels like breaking one’s head over the worthlessness
of such breaking news and the insanity of the media which projects them as such.
So why do we watch such news channels in
the first place? Any answer?
