Talking Shop: Listless media monarchs

“There was a time when we

used to have opinions, humble

opinions. Now everything seems

to be a question of life and

death. We defend, we abuse,

we call names, and we shout...”

― Everskeptic

What was mightier than the sword for generations has become but a blip of its former self. Admittedly, some who wield the pen in the country are trying still to resist and fight off our shameful media slide into literal and decimal obliteration, but it is slithering nonetheless. I caught a glimpse of this last week, when the head of a prominent media organization behaved like a lackey to the powers that be. I was bewildered by his unrequited rant and unexpected rage; but while astounded, I was not surprised. This particular specimen is just a vestige of the disease that pervades today’s Indian media, which has sunk to unimaginable lows, killing the once-mighty pen.

Read this paragraph carefully, for it delineates the affliction confronting us. When the Guru of any organization runs vagrant, slipshod and topsy-turvy, the tumult will eventually cascade down the rungs, inevitably and irreversibly. Eventually, reporters reporting to this demi-God will fall into line or be shown the door, unless they have the moral turpitude to hang up the pen on their own. Where will they go, though, for there are no respectful media jobs to be had in the new scheme of things? And this is exactly why most toe the s(t)inking line. This is personally hard for me to write, for I have grown up in a community of 326 houses with 326 journalists, almost every one of them a standout example of knowledge, credibility and rare writing flair. My father and 325 of my ‘uncles’ were part of this motley group. Today, I find myself alone, trying to live up to their legacy, yet miserable that I am floundering in that endeavour.

The s(t)inking line

This line of new elocutionists and verbalizers (sic) stinks indeed. We now have mediapersons who dance in and out of the debates waggling their fingers, behinds and words, rarely ever observing basic editorial and ethical manners, using debates to service something else—either a crack at the welfare state, standards, feminism, communal outrage(s) or touchy-feely post-the-act victimhood. These are today’s mighty academic voices, oft-landing rather un-softly in the middle of court cases or inquiries, offering so-called rational authority and their version of infinite morality and wisdom. Then there are the authorities themselves, who, during the entire period of accession, ascendancy, discovery and denial, do not make a statement about the prevalence of abuse or the deadly harm it is causing, or how to heal.

Finally, we have the detractors; and for their movement to take off, they rely on human interest victims—the ‘accused’, if you will—and then a very happy ending (as happened in the Bilkis Bano case). We also have the retractors, whose followers trail them to newspaper offices, television studios and press conferences. These are those who have recanted under palpable pressure; their numbers are growing quick and strong, quite dangerously so. As Louis Yako once said, this is precisely why the mainstream media’s language has failed the masses, for it does not tell us what we need to know, because their language marches in step with that of bankers, warmongers, oppressors and executioners. What is desperately needed today is a new language of radical sensibility and love, not one of fundamental hate. Today’s world has a desire to manipulate, control or discredit, which leads to a relentless distortion of reality that can numb a populace to outrage and weaken its ability to discern truth from fiction. This is the new media reality.

Why am I ranting thus?

I am raving because I am upset, with my own very self in particular, for I didn’t foresee this. As I have said before, we have fallen from grace. Today’s media will not talk of unemployment, rising prices and runaway inflation—tomatoes alone are now over Rs 200 a kg. They will not talk about rising crime against women, increasing incidences of lynching by mobs, frequent riots in many states or the rule of local goondas. They will not speak of Manipur or Gurugram. Instead, they will talk on inane and fake issues. Yesterday’s media never lost the ethic, the plunger to drive home a nationally-important point. Today, it’s all revenues and TRPs, subjugation, cars, power and continuance in so-called sacred office chairs. Being media was never about physical and material fulfilment. Now, that seems to be the only goal.

How else do we describe what is happening around us in nearly every sphere of life? The most gory is where a little village boy, nine years old, was thrashed for trying to drink water from a matka (earthen pot) at school. He was rushed to several hospitals and the little one finally succumbed to his injuries. Next to no one wrote about this. Equally disparaging is the unthinkable welcome accorded to 11 convicted of gang-rape and murder in the Bilkis Bano case. Not only were they garlanded and fed sweets in front of television crews who applauded and grandiose them, they even attended a get-together to celebrate their remission from prison after being held for 14 years for their heinous crime(s). We are stuttering as a nation and the going is only getting tougher. Remember the Sushant Singh Rajput case and the media celebration over it?

Time for re-assessment

We still have an opportunity, a chance of remittance to previous times. A few steps can go a long way to alleviate our fast-diminishing intellectual and mental poverty and propensity. We need to invest in making true news available to everyone, funding this by taxing the wealthy, without advertisements from the powerful ruling the roost, as has been done in Europe and the US. Look at the irony—many of the very overseas rich have voluntarily paid more taxes than they were supposed to, to protect their country through crises. The last decade has been different and the rules of living are different. We are learning to be fearful and subservient, even soul-less. The media has been hit hard, impaled, turning into a pusillanimous skeleton at the altar of a new today. If you do not toe the line, you risk losing those very toes.

Look at what Michael Bassey Johnson said: “I’d rather listen to the ramblings of a drunkard than get myself engrossed with the media and its appalling news (reports).” Mike perhaps spoke thus because every idiot in town with a microphone seems to have suddenly found a voice with or without social media, or maybe it is because once-intelligent people are getting dumber trying to defend arguments which other idiots won’t understand. I don’t belong to either category, I hope, and so I just don’t get it and can but just wonder. For those who find my views stern and harsh, I can but empathise, but these are my views.

The writer is a veteran journalist and communications specialist. He can be reached on narayanrajeev2006@gmail.com. Views expressed are personal