Same coin – head and tail. When I see the coverage going on in the mainstream news channels I cannot help but get amused about the ways in which they try to make subtle, their not so obvious support to the Congress.
It almost seems that the mainstream media has somewhere clearly come to understand its role (in no unambiguous terms) as one of propagating the views of the mainstream parties (read mostly Congress). The idea being that even if there is a lot of discontent out there in the public the lack of visibility of other options will keep forcing the people into the Congress’s hands. Doesn’t require rocket science to plan it out once you have the resources in hand.
Being mostly a NDTV follower (and I would like to understand why) I can best comment about that channel and can so clearly see the channel being out of sync with so much of the discussion I see in my meetings and interactions with the public.
People are fed up of just seeing the same Rahul Gandhi’s, Milind Deora’s and the Singhvi’s and other spokespeople. Public would much rather be knowing about the wave of discontent with the mainstream parties and the views and efforts of the new entrants. Of course people who are already there will get a bit more time but whatever happened to media having a pulse on the society. What happened to doing own research as opposed to relying on press relation teams?
I clearly see myself as a very unique proposition and somewhere an outcome of 26/11, which has enormous news value with a lot of people even mentioning to me that they would love to hear me on TV but somehow I or a lot more like me never get invited to give a byte or analyse public issues. And I certainly will not run after them for coverage or be mum about their obvious gaps.
Most of the talk shows and bytes invariably end up having Milind Deora as if no body else in the city had any view? As if nothing beyond South Mumbai existed. I think most of the anchors should stop hob nobbing with the elite and also spend some time among commoners.
Or have most of us got it wrong. Here is only a business with no moral compulsions. Whoever pays or builds a vested interest gets through.
What certainly does not seem to be in the picture is a conscience which apparently is supposed to be associated with the media.
I hope some impartial media observer (if we have some such thing, we are so boringly medieval in such matters) can do a factual study and do a good number crunching on the various points I have made above to come to a clear picture. I dont think I am much off mark. And I wonder what the arrangement must be for such a relationship.
