What can I, as a layperson, say about media ethics or the lack of it that has not already been said before? That the triangular bonding between the media-corporations-politicians is deeply dubious; that the daily news manufacture and manipulation at the television news channel factories is unacceptable and that Rakhi Sawant’s gradual siliconisation is not exactly ‘breaking news’. Suffice to say that the Fourth Estate is crumbling, collapsing and how.
A lot has been written about the devastating blow that the Radia tapes have proved to be on the Indian public’s faith in the media. Media darlings such as the fiery Ms. Barkha Dutt and the suave Mr. Vir Sanghvi ( I thought he had quit non-serious political reporting to become a serious food/restaurant critic hosting custom-made eponymous television shows but hey, what do I know and who am I to say?) have been gamed, named and shamed-all in one go.
Dutt and Sanghvi’s equally glorious media buddies after maintaining uncharacteristic silence for several days on the pretext of upholding highest journalistic standards ( hat they were waiting for the verification of the authenticity of the tapes etc) were finally pressured to speak but they only squealed. Mostly, they argued that the larger issue of business- politician nexus (most important) and media ethics (less important as it exists in abundance) should not be diverted by targeting individual journalists/small fries such as Barkha Dutt and Vir Sanghvi ( who are only the editorial bigwigs in the country’s most watched English news channel and most widely circulated English daily).
I will not talk about Vir Sanghvi as I think he has long moved on to reporting on food, luxury brands and other fancy-shmancy stuff and post the tapes, has severed his last tie to serious journalism by suspending his newspaper column but has promised to be back when this controversy is resolved.
But I wish to talk about Barkha Dutt who is really the ‘face’ of news in India. In the past, her journalistic style has raised a lot of questions but never her journalistic standards. For several days, she did not think it fit to speak on this issue citing legal reasons and deep personal hurt and outrage. Yet, she happily tweeted away in her distinctive self righteous, moralistic and catty style that SHE COULD DO NO WRONG!!
As an afterthought after a few weeks of the expose, (which could only be explained in terms of thousands of I hate Barkha Dutt emails and facebook pages of Take Barkha Dutt Off the Air), NDTV decided to host a dialogue between four senior journallsts, including Manu Joseph, Editor, Open Magazine which published the taped conversations and Barkha Dutt which was hopelessly mediated by Sonia Singh. It turned out to be what it was always supposed to be- a slanging match between Dutt and Joseph (some internet news stories have amusingly titled this debate as a due between BARCA and Man U).
Many commentators have commended NDTV’s largesse in this regard for hosting this discussion but cynics like me believe that this was the least that they could do. In fact, what startled me was the complete absence of Prannoy Roy in this discussion (which would have added a lot more credibility to this debate). I was outraged when I saw Barkha Dutt continuing to report and discuss the whole 2G scam and the Radia tapes as if she were not involved (even if, in a small way). And of course, no sanctions (however, minor) were issued against her by the channel.
On this NDTV mediated dialogue, Barkha Dutt, as expected, showed scanty regard for other people’s views by systematically attacking and interrupting them, completely sidelined the mediator proving once and for all who’s the real boss at NDTV and also, played (rather unsuccessfully) the gender card which seemed to be the last resort of this otherwise verbose and vociferous journo.
She tried in vain to appeal to public sentiments by quoting her long, illustrious and immaculate career in the media. She launched a verbal assault on Manu Joseph as he had not consulted her before publishing the raw tapes in his magazine as if she has, in her investigations always sought the views of her subjects before she telecast a news story on her channel. Manu Joseph’s question as to why she did not break open the story about corporate collusions in cabinet formation/s in 2009 and also in 2010, when there was clear evidence of corruption in the Telecom Ministry and Swapan Dasgupta’s question as to why Radia chose her to plug a request to play mediator between Congress and DMK and endorse Raja as Telecom Minister-was it because of her closeness to the Congress party and the pro-Congress slant in her reportage) remained unanswered.
Barkha’s dull and uninspiring response to these questions will put even an aspiring school magazine reporter to shame. Like a five year old, she mumbled and grumbled that she was a victim of a conspiracy and the poster girl for a smear campaign that helps Open magazine to sell copies. She said that she was naïve and gullible and as a political journalist, did not understand the workings of the brutal corporate underworld. Isn’t gullibility and naive ness the lamest possible excuse for someone of her stature and experience?
When one of the panelists asked her to end this debate by admitting and apologising to her viewers for a mistake that she had made, she doggedly refused, reiterating that the only mistake that she had made was in relation to the alleged casualness of her conversation to Radia and her promise to speak to the Congress on Raja’s ministerial berth was just to humour her source (because words like ‘sorry’ and ‘thank you’ were too hard to find in her vast vocabulary).
Anyhow, the point of this tirade is that those who have the power and influence over the spoken and written word owe no responsibility to their readers/viewers. Barkha Dutt’s continued screeching on television grossly overvaluing her own importance and undermining the viewer’s intelligence does not annoy but amuses me, the viewer –because it does not matter, SHE does not matter!
