Media credibility always seems to take a beating, particularly when the chips are down and the newspapers and television channels are expected to cover news with levels of maturity and responsibility. A recent example was the coverage of the beheading of the Indian soldier by Pakistan troops with television channels in particular astounding even many in the government with their hype and their hysteria. Anchors who should have reported facts calmly turned into screeching personalities, as they used harsh adjectives to describe the state of Pakistan, and virtually dared the Indian government to wage war. Guests who did not agree with this point of view were initially badgered out of shape, and eventually not invited as sanity was clearly not the order of the day. Officials in government as well as ministers in government shook their head in wonder, wondering whether the menu of the day for news channels was war, and more dangerously so, war without thought.
The media is facing a crisis of credibility and needs to repair the damage it has done to itself before it can hope to regain its space and reputation as a responsible watchdog for society and the nation. TRP and advertisements drive what has been actually described by a major newspaper and television channel owning industrialist, as a business with respect for news and facts becoming secondary in the process. It is ironical that in an environment free of formal censorship, the media is drawing its own lines, virtually blacking out news concerning the poor and the marginalised, zeroing in on one news to the detriment of all other issues, becoming the jury and the judge all in one go, with the result that news takes a beating in more ways than one. Paid news is another major issue where facts merge into advertisements with the ordinary viewer having no way of detecting the difference.
It is important to free the media from control that eats into its credibility, and makes it partisan. This is easier said than done as the broom has to be wielded from within, and not from the outside. To do this effectively, all newspapers and television channels have to come on board to agree to a common code of ethics but given the mushrooming of the media, the patterns of ownership, the contract nature of the journalists’ job, this seems to be an impossible task. News thus has become entertainment for some sections of the media, fiction for others who play with fires of half truths almost every day, with the proverbial broom remaining evasive and elusive
