Mass media biased towards Anna Hazare's cause say experts according to
an article in DNA on Sunday, August 28. Bhaskar
Rao of Centre for Media Studies
adds in the same article: "By its very nature, television is a very biased
medium. Whenever a big issue or a campaign like this crops up, news channels
try to be on top of it. This is the trend that prevails everywhere," …But
unfortunately in the Anna Hazare case, I think TV channels have overdone it…The
main issue here is corruption, which is the elephant, but the media has given
extensive publicity to "the elephant riders, which is Anna Hazare and his
team". There was a lone voice of support for news television channels from
noted journalist and Editor and Managing Director of Pioneer newspaper Chandan
Mitra, who feels it was not the case.
Everything in the lines from DNA that I’ve quoted could be true. Except
that the article misses certain points about the media. Let’s take Chandan
Mitra. Apart from being the MD of The Pioneer, he is also BJP member of the RS.
That’s double a privilege. The Pioneer is a journal that had many writers
severely criticising the Anna movement. One even called it “spreading canards..”
Truth is, the Anna campaign made an unwritten proposition to the media – ‘You
are with us or against us’. Given that terrible choice there was only one way
for the media to jump – the people way. TimesNow took the lead and the rest
just had to follow. And follow they did with the best attempt to draft the
worst camouflaged tarnishing of the campaign. They pulled out Mahesh Bhatt,
Nandita Rao, Aruna Roy, Harsh Mander, Nandan Nilekani and many more that they
could lay their hands on. All these worthies did their best to tarnish Anna’s
campaign and hold the govt line that all this was against the constitution.
Constitution! It’s a word you’d have heard more in the last ten days than ever
before in the last 3 decades. Suddenly, constitution was the final line of
defence for everyone against Anna’s campaign.
People may have some idea of the privileges of the media but let me
give a few examples. Even the lowest level employee in a well-known media
outlet extracts the greatest privileges from the system. For instance, you
could glide through a curfew area if you flash your media house business card
even if you are not a journalist or not have a permit. You can bargain the best
discounts at hotels and many other shopping outlets. Your payments could get
priority in government organisations if you’re from the media. Even a passport
office gives you priority if you flash your media card. The parties of big
media houses and their indulgences are something to behold. If you ever happen
to attend one of them you would hardly believe these outlets actually serve the
general public. So it’s only in a situation like the Anna movement that many
media outlets had a compulsion to tilt in favour of common people. They had no
choice. Otherwise, throughout the year they are more or less an extended PR
department of the government. How do I know? I’ve been there and done that in
my association with one of the highest
circulated journals in the country and probably the world. It is absolutely
shameful!
The current media as we know it has come about since the reforms of
1991. Prior to that, and maybe even now, the biggest advertiser is not private
enterprise but the government. The very survival of many media outlets depends
on the govt. In such a situation can the media really be expected to be on the
side of facts and truth? Despite all their claims those in the media who accept
govt awards like the Padmas must seriously question their own conscience. I was
witness to the terrible reporting of the Gujarat riots by star media celebs
like Barkha Dutt and Rajdeep Sardesai. They are also the ones that whipped up
the most emotions during Kandahar. They are now Padma Shri award winners. Both
NDTV and CNN-IBN have awarded Sonia Gandhi, Manmohan Singh, Rahul Gandhi sham
awards like ‘Indian of the year’. Are you seriously expecting them to represent
the people’s concerns?
On January 17, 1991 I was at home in London. It’s a historic day. I
watched till late night the first Gulf war that broke out. Even the BBC that
normally shut down broadcast then at midnight carried on airing reports till
around 3am. In less than an hour CNN, an otherwise unknown cable channel,
became an international household name. History hangs on tiny chances. In the
current Anna campaign TimesNow grabbed that tiny chance to become the channel
to grab the most eyeballs. If the other competitors followed, it was out of sheer compulsion and not out of
any sense of reporting factually. Thus NDTV, CNN-IBN, Headlines Today and even
all the Hindi channels rushed to stand by the people. This time they were all
also watching people on the social networks. So, in normal times a media that
is a slave of the government had no choice but to be in the right books. Make
no mistake, in the days and weeks to come, some of these channels will revert
back to their normal position of standing for the govt. They will do everything
to indulge in mud-slinging against the Anna Hazare team just as they tried to
during the initial stage of the anti-corruption movement in April and June
(Against Ramdev).
Ashutosh, the MD of IBN’s Hindi channel, has openly accused some
English channel media celebs of being govt spokespersons. He mentions how some
of them have acquired luxury flats and residences in a discussion conducted by
Karan Thapar. Believable? Absolutely! Go and take a look at the kind of flats
and bungalows that our media celebrities live in. You will not find that very
different from Bollywood celebrities. Rahul Kanwal even tweets about rising
interests bothering home buyers, but I really doubt it’s a problem that seriously
confronts him.
Following the outbursts of Kiran Bedi and Om Puri, the Parliament has
moved privilege motions against them. Hmmmm! PRIVILEGE is the key word. The
media reports it but it fails in their job to defend the right of free speech
of these individuals. That parliament has been endowed with such extraordinary
powers is wrong. The media should be standing up for these two individuals
despite their buffoonery. They will not. What they said and did may be
excessive but they weren’t wrong. It’s the way people feel. What does it say
about a journalist who cannot get near the people and feels comfortable in her
studio when she can rush to Egypt or Libya? Barkha Dutt has learned one thing
at least, that being crooked doesn’t pay! It equates with you with politicians
who constantly take the people for granted.
Democracy is not a relationship between the rulers and the ruled. It’s
a process between and among equals. The moment parliament thinks people are subordinate they go terribly
wrong. People are not subordinates. They are the reason parliament exists. They
are the reason constitution exists. They are the reason why media exists. The
day our media realises that and learns to be honest our parliament will be
honest. Till then, our media, more than our politicians, poses the greatest
danger to our democracy.
