The prevalent hypocrisy in news media

I stopped reading The Asian Age not because the content was inferior but because we (Alka and I) got sick of the blatant intellectual hypocrisy they thrust upon their readers. The Pioneer too is just a shade better, but at least it is: although it is very lenient about what the BJP and its various lunatic brigades do and very harsh about what the Congress and the Left perpetrates, it does not publish the lopsided opinions. Sadly, no matter what newspaper you read and no matter what news channel you watch, everything is about this or that propaganda. Nobody talks about things for their social, economic, religious or environmental significance. Everything is about politics and confabulated ideologies.

We got the Tata Sky connection yesterday and since all the channels are remarkably clear (they were intolerable prior to this) I decided to watch We The People. It’s a weekly program hosted by Barkha Dutt. They pick a “burning issue”, invite a few panelists and an audience, and then, at least of now, “try” to have a fair debate. Once it used to be my favorite program and to an extent she used to be one of my favorite TV journalists. Then, I won’t say she changed, but rather, the background changed and she, along with many of her fellow journalists and intellectuals, turned from fearless crusaders to crony journalists that operate upon the fringes of absurdity. When she seemed like a crusader, it was the BJP-supported NDA government and when the government changed, it was not a crusade, but an agenda.

For instance, all this noise being raised over the Nandigram killings, she said, is nothing but political opportunism; it’s hypocritical on the parts of all the political parties and the NGOs that are protesting against the ruthless attack on the villagers trying to save their farm land. She said, no party is clean, and they all have their skeletons to hide, and hence, the Left shouldn’t be attacked exclusively. She was asking the panelist from the Left “polite” questions but downright underplaying the opinions of the other panelists who happened to be contradicting the views of the host and the communist panelist. Fine, she has all the right to be polite and civil, but just change the person from a communist to a, say, BJP person. Then all of a sudden her true journalistic ethos raise their heads like the Loch Ness monster and that panelist not only has to face the wrath of the opposing panelists, but also that of the host. Then, suddenly, the “rot” is not all-pervasive. When we criticize the BJP, or the so-called “non-seculars”, we are not being cynical, but let their be an accusing finger raised against either the Left or the Congress or the secular brigade, and the waves of “cynicism” hit us like an unanticipated tsunami.

Journalist like her do this on purpose, for I don’t doubt her intelligence. They are always playing these mind games with the audience and readers. They highlight and underplay issues very cleverly to render a designed color to them. Take for instance, if there is a debate going on on communal riots and the topic of Gujarat riots comes up and someone mentions the 1984 riots, or say the Midnapore massacre and she’ll quickly retort with a “let’s not play the blame game here,” or something of that sort.

No, I’m not singling her out and yes, all riots should be severely condemned and the culprits punished no matter who they are.

It’s just that I watched her program today. There are scores of journalists in India who follow double standards. In fact read Outlook and you’ll feel like the entire editorial staff is being paid by the Congress to sound unbelievably silly. A few years ago I stopped reading The Pioneer because its BJP-leaning was intolerable, that is, until I read The Asian Age whose journalists support Hamas and most terrorist outfits and either justify or underplay the various terrorist attacks that happen with uninterrupted regularity. Compared to that The Pioneer is far better.

Yesterday when I was browsing through the news channels (I was trying to figure out how to operate the remote of the new set top box) on NDTV a journalist, filled with emotional theatricality was explaining how the police in Nandigram was re-establishing the infrastructure and rebuilding the roads and help people. May be it’s true, or may be it’s not. Given NDTV’s track record, I saw the news, for a few seconds that I watched it, with a pinch of cynical salt.