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Media's Low Credibility
Media's Low Credibility
the supposed leader of the newspaper pack, independent media has become an oxymoron. To be sure, it has been clear for some time that the media is often supine and subservient, but matters seem to be getting worse. Let us take some examples. The president of the oldest and largest party in the country, the Congress, has seldom given an interview to any media house. Nor has she addressed any open house. It can happen in Liberia or Somalia but should not happen in India. The media seems to have simply accepted the situation. On the Bhopal tragedy, the media has rightly focused on the Anderson tales, namely his arrival, arrest and departure without any political leaders being involved! But what about Keshub Mahindra and the other executives? Mahindra has occupied important positions after the accident. No interviews with them. No talk about them. What about the factory inspectors of Bhopal?
What about the minister in charge and the secretary in charge of industry at that time? It seems Anderson single-handedly ran that factory from the US! The corrupt local bureaucracy and politicians should have been exposed, but the media has been silent. Another extreme distortion is the recent floods and storms in West Bengal and Bihar which killed more than a hundred people. The electronic media was silent on the catastrophe since they were focused only on the IPL scandal. Some newspapers allotted little space for such a major calamity. In the UK and the US, some print media companies did go upmarket in the last few years. It means covering more of art/theatre/opera/ music. In India, going upmarket means more of page 3 skin and spin. The media do not consider India as a civilisation, but as a market. If so many million cars are sold in India and the figure is one car more than China then we have arrived. A good number of media (print and TV) persons are actually not citizens of India. Probity requires that foreign citizens with Indian names should make a disclaimer in that regard, particularly when they write/speak on Indias security. But they dont do that. So much for transparency.