The theatrics in journalism

One does not often get amusement or a moment of joy, surfing the usual drab pedestrian English news channels in the Indian media space, focusing on the sensational – not the important. Last week one was rewarded with three vignettes, one of pure humour, and two tinged with sadness and dismay. In the context of the RK Nagar bypolls in Chennai, one saw a part of the audience in a campaign rally, carrying large metallic rice-cookers on their heads – apparently the symbol of a candidate. Imagine a BSP rally with participants lifting live elephants! – in many cases it may have required 100 or more party workers joining hands in the effort! 

On the half-an-hour or so of the live Gujarat election results broadcast from 8 am onwards, on Monday, the 18th, the nature of the ‘beast’ of broadcasting was exposed. Note that eight or ten post-poll predictions, publicized the previous Saturday had all hailed the prospective BJP victory, with nearly identical substantial margins. 

On Monday, as the broadcast started, two distinct brands of anchors were on the stage – those supporting the ruling party sporting a smug victorious smile, well prepared to demolish and humiliate the ‘experts’ supporting the Congress, ready to dish-out poison-barbs; simultaneously, on English/other language channels, the anchors belonging to the tribe of old loyalists of the dynasty, with a sheepish hang-dog look, bracing themselves to go through a difficult hour where the ‘ruling party’ experts would display their arrogance and contempt. Sadly our news channels have reduced themselves to either be political supporters or opponents, abandoning their only job to purvey the news, with minimal bias. 

That Monday, surfing the channels, events went as per script for about half-an-hour, with the ruling party establishing a sizeable lead, in line with the predictions. Suddenly, there was a new buzz and heightened tension, when Congress started ‘closing the gap’ – the next one hour was sheer drama, with the participants in the TV theatres exhibiting genuine passions and traits of human nature, not play-acting, exposing their true orientations. One can suddenly feel the tension rising in the pro-establishment anchors, who sensed an unpleasant upset as a dramatic possibility; one could see ‘sweat’ on their faces, as they started contemplating the potential consequences of the new ‘emerging’ numbers. 

Concurrently, the opposite was the reaction of the anchors from the ‘opposition’ – there was a new gleam in their eyes, an awareness of the extra-ordinary possibilities opened up by the new trends emerging from the counting – a combination of faith, prayer, expectation – indeed exhortation to the gods that the trends would continue and upset the apple-cart. 

Note that most experts and political commentators of an earlier era had made their professional fortunes over decades along-side the politics of the Congress party, indeed being collaborators, facilitators, and participants in the success of the then ruling tribe – indeed the beneficiaries of the largesse bestowed by a grateful dispensation. Many of them had been exposed in various compromising positions in the past, having been co-conspirators and ‘news’-henchmen of the year. 

As they ‘suffered’ the defeat in 2014, they knew that an era had ended and their happy days are over; indeed there has been continuing tragi-humour theatre for the past three years, to see which ones toned down earlier loyalties, and how many persisted in inexorable ruthless criticism of the new dispensation, and how many and in what manner slowly changed their stance from hostility to mild criticism to neutrality, and further on shamelessly to tacit or active support. As the counting numbers converged, there was a perceptible glimmer of new hope burgeoning in their hearts that they are possibly at the cusp of a ‘turning point’. For a dispassionate observer, it was a sheer theatrical delight to see them come back to life that Monday morning, and with a prayer that a miracle is nigh. 

But in the course of about 45 minutes, the catch-up bubble had spent itself out – the final results indicating the victory for the ruling party nearly sealed, though with much smaller majority than predicted by the exit-pollsters. The remarkable uniformity of the exit-poll predictions, with allegedly +-3 per cent variation, is a sad commentary on the professional competence of the agencies. Likewise, a moot question is whether the 1500 point swing downwards, and the 1800 point swing upwards in the SENSEX, during one hour was a natural phenomenon or was there a hidden hand?

What does all this say about the competence, intellectual honesty, fair-play, neutrality, even-handedness, indeed professionalism of our journalism? Is there a genuine credible ‘fourth-estate’ in the country? We knew decades back that the likes of Murasoli newspaper, Jaya TV were nakedly partisan – there is no shortage of such media in different parts of India. The national newspapers and TV channels had at least exhibited a fig-leaf of neutrality, and pretence of fairness. Has this also vanished, as a sacrifice to our ‘thriving democracy’? 

The reaction to the 2G judgment is a case in point, ranging from a call for prosecution of Vinod Rai, and on the other spectrum seen as conclusive proof of involvement of PMO. For the common man, what really matters is the non-existence of a legal/judicial system, with all loot freely permitted. Are the umpires in the political field all openly and flagrantly supporters of one side or the other? One would be blind not to see a clear undoubted nexus between media ownership, anchors and politics!

The Constitution guarantees free opinion and free speech. Apart from the judicial system, it is the primary responsibility of the fourth estate to be the spokesman of the citizen to ensure fairness and access to facts – tempering opinion with reality. There has rightly been major criticism of the civil service and the police class for becoming politicized – where is the professionalism in the media? Physician, heal thyself!

The author is a former cabinet secretary. Views expressed are personal.