NOTA option- needed in Media
In the now famous ‘Krantikari’ interview with AajTak, Modi
took the word ‘Krantikari’ at least 5 times, giving the tag a sarcastic connotation,
well earned by Aaj Tak. Till then no one had brought the narrative of illicit cohabitation of Media and Political
parties to public discussion.
And
the rousing appreciation from public, for catching media by its evil horns, is evident
from the trending #ModiOnAajTak in twitter. This tweet sums up the general feeling.
The
tweets expressed the collective glees of public, their feelings akin to fans of
larger than life Indian hero, thrashing a throng of villains in
an one sided fight. It was Rajnikath vs the rest of the villainous world. But
in this case, the fight was real not reel. Defeat was not make believe, for the
viewers could see for themselves the pusillanimous interviewers, perhaps forced
to act the way they did by their pay masters, meaning employers, running for
cover with tail between their legs, just as Rajnikanth would make the horde of
villains do.
All
the mirror neurons that flashed that night could have lit a village. Modi
was doing to the media, what many of us would have given an arm and leg to. As Modi
lay bare the lies of the media calling out the ‘emperor has no cloths’ – a moment
of truth dawned. Media will never be the same again and in my mind, this action
was a watershed moment. It was a moment of vicarious victory for the viewers, over the soul selling,
moolah raking media under the guise of ideological reporting.
During the interview, whenever the interviewers asked questions
along the line “have you stopped beating your wife” Modi was quick to call
their bluff off. He accused them of pursuing a policy of asking questions, not as a
‘neutral media’ but as one seeking TRP, truth be damned. That was the crux of
the interview to me.
When the facts of DD interview were there for all to see,
what is it those two interviewers sought from Modi? When Modi tried bringing
back the narrative to mature topics, what made those interviewers slide back to
topics of gossip? What made one of the interviewers take back his comments, a refreshing change? Did I mention 'watershed moment'?
As I
repeat ad nauseam, the media now has no place for the cerebral lot. Let me qualify
it, the popular media, which consists of the entire English and most of the
Hindi media is full of shallow, loud mouthed, ignorant, arrogant people whose
only qualification seems to be their ability to deliver dialogue tinged in
ideological dye and connection to some political lackey.
About printed media,
suffice to say, yuck
In
that interview it came out clearly that the interviewers had no clue about the
questions they posed. No background work seems to have been done. No one seemed
to have critically reviewed the questions that were asked. Modi exposed it,
arrogantly, and asked them to go and do their home work, verify the facts before posing them. It
was inept and inefficient preparation for which people get sacked in any other
organization.
As the #ModiOnAajTak
trends, there is another heart rending news of Assam that occupies substantial
media space.
The media is full of horseshit on this topic except the
relevant ones. The sound bites that are being played out loud are
1.
BJP questions what Dr Manmohan Singh has done in
the last 10 years to prevent such massacre
2.
Congress blames Modi’s comments on ‘illegal
migrants’ as reason for the massacre
3.
Omar Abdulla blames polarizing election as cause
and goes on to say that it was the painting of all the Muslims “as Bangladeshi
illegal immigrant”
Let
us go in the reverse order. When Omar said that ‘the painting of all the
Muslims as Bangladeshi illegal immigrant’ did anyone who reported this ask him
to provide proof? Did any reporter or the community tell him that this is a
partisan quote and will be published as a divisive utterance of Omar if he
fails to back his words with facts? Did any reporter challenge Omar?
The insinuation is that Modi said that ‘all Muslims’ are Bangladeshis, something that can be verified from past reports. Omar made a brazen false claim, was coward enough not to lay it at Modi’s door step and with the help of the collaborating snakes in media, slip in a myth that Modi designed the killing in Assam. Here is a case of TRP trouncing truth.
Going
to the second one, that Congress blames Modi comments (there were other running
dogs too which blamed Modi for this massacre) the questions were there to be
asked. But no one did. Modi was right. These Media houses have a choice to be
neutral or to pursue TRP and with few exceptions, all run after TRP they cannot earn by honest reporting, hence earn by peddling salacious gossips, feeding the public with half lies.
I
see substance in the question from BJP to Congress. What has been done in
Assam, the State from our PM represents to prevent such occurrences? If there
is a response, there can be a debate on the effectiveness of the steps taken, which
will go to identify the weakness and possible correction. This is one question
the media should have asked but did not.
The
tragedy is, the ground realities are different. The Bodo outfit, National
Democratic Front of Bodoland, is accused of the massacre. According to a report
in Times of India, Bodos and Muslims had an agreement from which the Muslims
reneged. And now NDFB denies those charges and blame Government forces as the
killers. Read it here
Minister for border areas Siddique Ahmed, said after
visiting the violence-hit areas that his government and the ruling Congress
party failed to protect the victims, who included at least eight children
Read more at: http://www.firstpost.com/india/assam-live-ten-companies-of-paramilitary-forces-to-arrive-1506649.html?utm_source=ref_article
Read more at: http://www.firstpost.com/india/assam-live-ten-companies-of-paramilitary-forces-to-arrive-1506649.html?utm_source=ref_article
In
spite of the massacre having nothing to do with BJP, the media drags BJP into
the narrative in pursuit of TRP, the accusation Modi made, a very validated
one, it appears.
I
find Chauthi Dunia interviews to be much more nuanced and without hype. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uOrpn3zIs5c
is an interview to be watched for its sobriety content alone, that also comes as a great
relief from the high decibel shallow screaming of Arnabs and Rajdeeps.
While
the sound boxes of English media glorify ‘NOTA’ option in election, we, who pay
for these channels are in real need of ‘NOTA’ option. We need a neutral media
that is not ideologically biased, fair media that reports both sides of a
story, honest media that does not take money and favors to do witch-hunts for
political parties, ethical media that does not sleep for few changes with the
first available political leader and most importantly an intelligent media that
knows its questions.
And
I am sure there is a place in the market as the need for it is
now palpable. Modi has lent expression to the longings of a large section of people
who want to see neutrality brought back to center stage in reporting. It is a
shame that a politician had to remind that to Media Industry. But, unfortunately,
is the shape of things in Media. What
Modi did yesterday is just a clarion call to fight the evil content in Media.
There are many battles to be fought to bring ethics and neutrality back to
Media. Let us hope it gets done.
dwimidha@gmail.com
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