The modern day curse called “media”
dated: 31/07/2008
Dear Readers
This post may be taken as a sort of continuation to varun’s post titled “The Aarushi TRP joke!“.
The media as we know it today, seems to have a chronic disease of drawing its own conclusions before the authorities themselves. As varun rightly pointed out with reference to the Aarushi-Hemraj double murder, for the media it is no longer about bringing out the truth but about selling their story to the public. If it really was about bringing out the truth for the media, why is it that out of the countless murders that take place in our country of a billion the media chooses to glorify few odd ones which they think will get them the best ratings on television?
I shudder to think of the trauma the innocent father, Dr Rajesh Talwar, probably had to face when he was initially indicted by the UP police. And after he was declared innocent and released by the CBI, the media still did not leave him in peace. Scenes of scores of media persons crowding around Dr Talwar and his family after his release were splashed across every newspaper in the country and telecast across every news channel. Even a revenge-seeking ghost is not capable of haunting a person the way the Indian media does. Not just outside the Dasna jail where Dr Talwar had been held captive, the media went to the extent of frenzying around Dr Talwar’s home to seek him for questioning after his release.
This isnt the first time that our country has witnessed the disgusting acts of a media desperate to earn better ratings. It was almost two decades ago when our then Prime Minister the late Mr Rajiv Gandhi was the scapegoat that the media choose to perform its halal on. Mr Gandhi was accused of receiving kickbacks from Bofors AB for winning a bid to supply India’s 155 mm field howitzer. Later in 2004, he was declared innocent by the Delhi High Court. Unfortunately Mr Gandhi did not live long enough to see the day justice was granted to him. As usual the Indian media glorified the Bofors scandal and portrayed an innocent and honourable man as the villain behind a nefarious scheme he was never a part of.
Countless Indian celebrities have been part of embarrassing MMS scandals, all thanks to the media. Are clips of Kareena Kapoor sharing a kiss with Shahid Kapur or nude clips of Preity Zinta and Sania Mirza so necessary for the country to see that the media has been granted a license to invade their privacy or anyone’s privacy for that matter? That is what the media people seem to think.
Not just clips of well known personalities in their private moments, the media (and this is not just restricted to the Indian media) have not spared dying men even. When ex Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein was put to the gallows, his final moments were captured on a cell phone camera, and as usual media all over the world aired this clip, uploaded it for everyone to see and printed screenshots of it in newspapers and tabloids. And the consequences? Civil and sectarian violence in many parts of the world. Kids as young as 10 years old committed accidental suicide trying to imitate the actions in the clip.
It may be argued that it is because of media that we are constantly updated with news and information from happenings across the world. What sort of information? Lies that serve personal agendas? Or useless half truths about celebrities? And how often is it that good incidents get more air time/space than all the negative things the media seems to be obsessed with showing? Skepticism seems to be the order of the day for the media. Ex US president Lyndon Johnson once rightly quoted, “If one morning I walked on top of the water across the Potomac River, the headline that afternoon would read: ‘President Can’t Swim.’”
As varun rightly said in the above mentioned post, “If this is freedom of expression, we don’t need it! Please don’t give this in the hands of people who don’t know how to use it.”
Freedom should be balanced with responsibility. I think a 5 year old can exhibit more responsibility than today’s media. Because in the spider web of facts presented by the media, many a truth is strangled. And this strangulation of truth, if not checked, will one day lead to the asphyxiation of civilization itself.
Yours Ludicrously
Lucky
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