Media in a muddle

There are a lot of things the independent media is supposed to do, but throughout this year, we have witnessed enough to get a clear idea as to what they are not supposed to do. While television and the internet have paved way for quicker and wider coverage of just about anything that happens, it seems that the poor people in charge of filtering what goes out to the general public have had their in trays full.  It would appear that things have finally reached a point where they just do not care anymore. The result? Our general public is being exposed to complete nonsense passed off as professional journalism.

Now if we were a nation of level headed individuals who were capable of accepting a broad and understanding view of society, things would have been better but alas, Murphy’s laws do work.  Take for example the kind of nosy penetration into people’s lives carried out these days. Seeing tear stained faces on television pointing fingers and allocating blame seems to have blown away ‘Kyunki Saas Bhi Kabhi Bahu Thi’s TRPs! This is before even mentioning how controversy is sniffed out and even respectable figures like poor Manmohan Singh are ridiculed without remorse.

This is the age where reporters sneak dummy bombs into stadiums to prove that security is lax, and corporate lobbyists play around with media figures people have trusted for years. The argument is that the truth must be exposed and controversy will be created. If that was indeed the case, how did Woodward and Bernstein expose the truth in a manner that hurt only the ones involved and did not enflame an entire nation?

Now, let these matters rest. The most comical scenario seen this year is that of our beloved MP Shashi Tharoor. True, the man may have erred on occasion and ended up with a bit of soot on him after the whole IPL fiasco, but now he seems to be everyone’s favourite whipping boy and tongues wag over the implications of him drinking his morning tea. It’s come to the point where the man cannot pose with an award without drawing flak!  Maybe we should all just take a nice deep breath and give each other a hug and celebrate the New Year instead of looking for more skeletons to dig up and see if people like Mr. Tharoor can be used to get any more attention. Let’s face it, the man sells.

It is most ironic that people I felt like cheering for while watching interviews were movie actors. When asked some question to start a controversy based on a remark of his, John Abraham replied something like this,” Why can’t you think positive for a change? We all know everything I said is in good faith, must you always try to find controversy? Please be a little positive once in a while, just a little!”

So now the fourth estate has sunk to the point of being chided by Bollywood, what next? May 2011 be a better year, and see something sensible for us to mull over, instead of the ethics behind accepting awards!