Saturday, 21 April 2012
Media (ir)responsibility
Media (Ir)responsibility
The UPAII government seems to have resigned itself to
probable or inevitable defeat in the next General elections. That is bad news.
If one dispassionately and objectively analyzes the present political scenario,
it will be clear that any alternative is daunting and worrisome. Personal ego
and arrogance, vaulting ambition and corruption at the cost of national
interest among some state leaders, have revealed the chinks in the armour of
the opposition. No political party has
crowned itself with glory and this is what is being taken advantage of by Team
Anna’s ambitious and disgruntled persons to launch a no-holds- barred tirade
against all members of Parliament. One
is tempted to show the mirror to Team Anna and ask them who is the foulest of
all. There is not much to choose but
with the TINA factor in operation, it will be stupid to lump Team Anna’s
cynicism and give up parliamentary system of governance that has been in force
for the last sixty-two years. We need not fear that Indian republic will
dwindle into a banana republic.
It is time for us to look at the present government with our
own eyes and not with the media lens. Media and in particular, the electronic
media revels in exposes to showcase its remarkable investigating skills, its honesty of purpose
and commitment to ‘truth and nothing but
the truth’ and its legitimate right to express anger by adopting a hectoring
tone sans all civility. Anna’s movement
has come in handy for the Media to make corruption a quotidian event. Media has
already written the obituary of UPAII for bringing down India from a shining
pedestal (though no one knows when the media had given it the ‘shining’ tag) to
a shaming base. Starting a year back with airing the dirty picture of Indian
toilets and exposes of
India’s unpreparedness to host CWG, the Media made CWG hall of shame take
centre stage relegating the CWG hall of fame to a footnote in the history of
Indian sports. The cry of outrage became louder than the applause that greeted
the Indian medal haul. It now views itself more and more aggressively as the
modern Knight in Shining armour to protect the honour of the nation from the
dishonourable deeds of UPAII.
In the last twelve months preening itself on its exposes, the
media has been baying for more blood as a curative therapy for corruption. The
Assange leaks gave it the needed ammunition to become the Indian avatar of
Assange, a modern buzz word meaning ‘the act of dressing up self-indulgence as piety’. The media is
now ubiquitous –here, there, everywhere-right from the
PMO’s corridors to the Ministry of Defence to the office of the Army
Chief to CAG’s hallowed portals and has easy access to flash
breaking news of a sensational and alarmist kind. Scams from 2Gspectrum
to Adarsh housing and
land allocation, from mining lease to auction of coalfields with the
startling
disclosure of hypothetical revenue loss of many lakh crores have
indicted all governments
from Gujarat to Odisha, from Andhra to Puducherry, from Madhya Pradesh
to Maharashtra,
from Kashmir to Karnataka-not to leave out Delhi which is projected as
the
epicentre of corruption. Media has reveled in showcasing India as a
corrupt
nation. The latest in its salvo is lack of ammunition for the Indian
army
highlighted by an investigative scoop of a TV channel. The statistics
reeled
out by a TV anchor with a worried face in a distraught voice and angry
tone suggest
that India cannot last any war for more than a week- This disclosure
came on
the eve of the visit to India by Pakistan President. Earlier when the
BRICS summit
was on, the media went hammer and tongs on the same issue on the basis
of an
accessed letter from the army chief to the Prime Minister. The media
with its
penchant for high sounding falutin orchestrates trust deficit between
the
government and the armed forces as though the nation is on the verge of
an army
coup. It indicts the government for its policy paralysis when under the
daily
blistering attack on the government by the anchors, no one in the
government is
willing to stake his neck on any matter involving purchases or auction
of coal
fields or allowing higher FDIs into core sectors. There is no second
opinion on
the Media’s right to freedom of expression, but this right also includes
the
collective right of the people to know and be well informed. With its
one point
agenda to oppose the government the media does not allow anyone the time
to
reflect whether there are honest ministers, executives and judiciary at
all in
the UPAII government. The sting
revelations by the media, while welcome
to an extent has risen to such a crescendo to make the viewers believe
that all
parliamentarians-specially those of the ruling party are goons and we
are ruled
by a government which is of the corrupt , by the corrupt , and for the
corrupt.
Media does not speak of the hundreds of honest and committed ministers,
administrators and judges who have done good and honest work despite the
ubiquitous presence of corruption in some quarters.It seems as though
'no good news is news; all news is bad news.'
It was Thomas Carlyle who enlarging upon Burke’s three
estates described the Press as the fourth Estate to emphasize its independence.
Oscar Wilde wrote that ' Press is the only estate that exists. It has eaten
up the other three (estates)…We are dominated by Journalism.’. Harold
Laski in 1945 wrote to the effect that what the 19th century gained in democracy,
the 20th century has lost in information. But today more than
corruption and inefficiency, the rhetoric of the fourth pillar of
democracy is
of the gravest concern. The media has
taken on the role of gutter inspectors. The electronic media competing
with the
print media give selective, slanted information under the cover of
honest
investigative socially responsible journalism. The media suffers from
self
importance without ever bestowing a thought on the havoc it unleashes by
its
scoops. This raises a pertinent question-which no one dares to ask the
Media-. how does Media get their moles in the establishment? Doesn’t
Media corrupt the
government employees and make them disclose sensitive information? Is
this not
a case of bribery to make the government employee divulge sensitive
information? The media may claim that it has to be a watchdog and there
is
nothing wrong in corrupting the babus in the government offices. For
Media,
fair is foul and foul is fair-all means to extract ‘foul’ deeds are
fair. McLuhan
frequently punned on the word "message" changing it to
"massage", to denote the effect each medium has on the human sensory
and intellectual perceptions. The effect of its daily dose of
sensational breaking news has caused panic among the honest bureaucrats and
ministers resulting in policy paralysis in the government. Has not the Media revelled in the tantrums of Anna
and of the opposition to spoil all reforms the Government had initiated- FDI in
retail, insurance, aviation, railway budget, and last but not the least in
setting up NCTC. Yet it is this government that has brought two the RTI and the
RTE. This government has displayed great restraint despite a frontal attack on
it by the Media. The Media ignores civility, politeness, tempered language and
suavity exemplified by our Prime Minister and by his senior Ministers and
sneers at them as means to cover their indefensible acts of omission and
commission. Isn’t it time for Media also to show some restraint and civility-
the lack of which are manifestations of corruption of the mind and spirit.
Media has a greater responsibility to educate its captive audiences to think,
reflect and debate as mature persons,to
help them to analyze and rationally understand issues as responsible
future citizens of this country. Let not the media destroy the democratic
structures given to us by our Constitution, but strengthen it by setting
personal standards of high integrity, commitment and morality. A tamil nursery
rhyme tells children that the monkey does not know to build nests, but know to destroy
the built nest. There has to be a genuine partnership between the government, the media
and the public pitched beyond hysterical perceptions. Let us not indulge in
calumny, heckling and jeering but work to restore faith in our democratic
institutions..
The truth is Media’s blitzkrieg against corruption has
currently brought darkness at noon, but the same Media has the potential and the means to
dispel that darkness. There are still a very large number of voiceless millions
in civil society whose voices should echo forth from the Media and help people
to live by moral values and ethical principles.
Let media give us the comfort that
All is not lost with the world
The stars shine still.
.
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