- Unethical journalism in India undermines societal harmony and national interests, favoring narratives aligned with foreign agendas.
- The mainstream media applies double standards, harshly criticizing Hindu practices while overlooking similar practices in other communities.
- Some journalists routinely sensationalize news stories to inflame communal tensions or doctor them to subtly promote products for personal and corporate profit.
Have you ever wondered why the mainstream media in India is almost always arrayed against India’s interests, traditions, and civilizational ethos? Why do some of the well-known names in the media industry take a stance that aligns more with the interests of Pakistan, China, and the West? Why do many journalists preach to Hindus, asking them to avoid using water on Holi, fireworks on Diwali, and milk on Shivaratri while celebrating the slaughter of animals in the streets on Eid? Why such double standards and hypocrisy?
Due to the compromised and unethical journalism practiced by some of the leading editors, who habitually peddle an anti-Indian narrative, it is hard to know whether such journalists are working for India or its adversaries. For instance, on the Kashmir issue, even the Pakistani media does not attack India as much as these left-liberal Indian journalists do. As Republic TV’s Arnab Goswami said: “Vested interests in some parts of the media have been openly and shockingly trying to echo the Pakistani line. In the guise of backing Kashmiris, these sections – including sections of the media – are doing everything possible to support Pakistan, sitting here in India.”[1]
Here’s a peek behind the scenes in the nation’s newsrooms to understand how these shady individuals operate.
Case Study 1: Fueling the Communal Cauldron
One of my earliest encounters with an unethical journalist happened during the 2002 Gujarat riots. I was the copy editor at a leading Delhi-based National daily, and what you’re about to read is straight from the trenches.
The daily had a Gujarat bureau with an experienced and well-connected local reporter, but for some inexplicable reason, it dispatched a crime reporter based in New Delhi to cover such a major communal clash. From reporting on court matters, this 20-something reporter, whom I’ll call Vinod, suddenly found himself in the middle of a riot.
One of the stories that Vinod filed, and which made it to the paper’s front page, was an incendiary – and unsubstantiated – piece about a “Muslim cyclist” who was “passing through a Hindu majority residential area” and got lynched by a “Gujarati mob.” The mob, he claimed, grabbed “loose concrete blocks from the footpath to crack open his skull, resulting in his brains spilling on the ground.”
The shocking thing was that we were just two hours from publishing this rabble-rousing report – not backed up by any official statement – on the front page. At a sensitive time, when the media needed to be extremely cautious about what it published, the reporter and the editors were dumping more fuel into the communal cauldron.
Now, at this daily – which in 2002 had a print run of 900,000 copies – speed rather than accuracy was all that mattered. During a presentation before us journalists, the printing division’s head had told us – perhaps with some exaggeration – that each half-hour delay meant the paper would print 25,000 fewer copies. Minor errors, therefore, did not warrant delays. If there was a delay of more than 5 minutes past 11.00 pm the following morning, we had to provide a good reason for overshooting the deadline. Needless to say, the heart-stopping deadlines had caused frequent burnouts of journalists.
Despite such pressures, I decided to call up the reporter and get the story sorted. Here’s how the phone call went:
Delhi Bureau: Did you see the man being killed?
Vinod: No. But I have reliable sources who did.
Delhi Bureau: So, who is your source?
Vinod: There was a group of people outside this housing society who showed me the exact spot where the mob killed the man.
Delhi Bureau: How do you know for sure that the man was a Muslim?
Vinod: According to the same group of people, the man had a long beard. In fact, these people wanted to kill me, too, because they thought I was a Muslim.
Delhi Bureau: What was a Muslim man doing, cycling through a Hindu-majority area on the third day of a major Hindu-Muslim riot?
Vinod wasn’t wedded to any ideology. He was just a fake news manufacturer. He is now a corporate consultant at a Mumbai-based headhunting firm and no doubt peddling snake oil.
Vinod: Maybe he was lost.
Delhi Bureau: How do you know his brain spilled out?
Vinod: The same group of people showed me bloodstains on the footpath.
Delhi Bureau: And you believe they are telling the truth?
Vinod: Yes.
Delhi Bureau: So, the group that you claimed threatened to kill you is now your authentic source?
Vinod: (Stammering) Look, all of them couldn’t lie.
Despite the winter chill, I could sense Vinod loosening his tie (he often wore ties, even in summer). In all those years at the paper, he was not used to being questioned like this. However, being a glib operator, he thanked me for calling him and said he would try to clear up all my doubts.
My biggest worry at that point was that the graphic details would inflame people in other parts of Gujarat and India and spark more violence the following day. There was no point appealing to my line editor’s journalistic ethics or his concern—if any—for public safety or India’s image. Also, there was the possibility that Vinod was the management’s hitman, in which case I would be victimized, too.
There was only one way out. I told the line editor that such a gory piece could spark communal riots in Delhi. Self-preservation appeals to everyone, so he quickly asked me to find a replacement story. A couple of hardcore liberals protested but were overruled.
Years later, I mentioned the riot story to one of his former bosses, who told me: “Vinod is a complete fraud, and I would not for a second doubt if he himself concocted the Gujarat story. Once under pressure to do a major story for the Sunday magazine, he just didn’t show up and sent a message, saying he wasn’t feeling well and couldn’t come to the office.”
Vinod wasn’t wedded to any ideology. He was just a fake news manufacturer. He is now a corporate consultant at a Mumbai-based headhunting firm and no doubt peddling snake oil.
Case Study 2: The Nuclear Bogey
Among the more rabid rabble-rousers in the Indian media is a Kerala Christian journalist named Annie (name changed), who used to work at a leading national news magazine. I joined the company a year after India had tested five nuclear bombs in 1998.
As well as being a terrible writer, Annie was a religious fundamentalist. One day, she said in the newsroom that the summer of 1999 was hotter than usual because of the nuclear tests carried out the previous year. She would casually drop this nugget of ‘information’ whenever she was in earshot of senior journalists. Thankfully, the presstitutes that populate the media were not in as large numbers back then, or her lie could have gotten more traction. Being a terrible lifestyle journalist, nobody took her seriously anyway.
Annie later told me that the information was provided by her parish priest in her New Delhi church. She said the priest got the information about Indian temperatures from American sources. Having attended mass in Christian churches in Kerala, I knew where Annie came from. The church is a big influencer in all temporal matters, and many who attend Sunday mass faithfully regurgitate the regular anti-India and anti-Hindu drivel by the priests.
Annie is still around peddling her church’s Breaking India agenda through her anti-Hindu articles. The irony is that these Christian journalists who openly trash India, the defense forces, Hinduism, Hindu monks, and Hindu kings and queens are allowed to continue in their plum jobs by newspaper owners who belong to devout business families such as the Birlas, Goenkas, and Jains.
Case Study 3: The Television Salesman
This case happened during my stint at a Delhi-based magazine. Every year, the magazine had a Diwali special with a feel-good cover story on the mega deals available for the middle class.
The pesky para was not germane to the story; it looked like it was put in there to influence the share price of the TV company.
When the nearly 3,000-word story landed in my inbox, it didn’t take me long to edit as it was a well-written story by a senior writer. However, one paragraph struck me as odd as it mentioned the prices of two flat-screen televisions introduced by a leading company. The pesky para was not germane to the story; it looked like it was put in there to influence the share price of the TV company. It made the entire article look like a paid advertorial. I deleted the sentences and ran them past the writer, who re-inserted them before sending me the approved copy.
I again removed the paragraph and sent it for production. When the layout proofs were sent to the writer, he called and asked me to add that paragraph again. I said maybe he was just being helpful to the reader, but some readers would look at it as a plug. He hung up and called the copy editor, my boss, demanding that he reintroduce the paragraph.
Finally, a compromise was reached. The para was retained, but some of the more blatant plugs were removed. I remember a senior colleague commenting, “Either a brand-new TV or a large amount of cash has changed locations in Mumbai.”
They call themselves journalists
Most journalists are ethical and want to do a good job, be acknowledged for their work, and hope that their work will make a difference. Many routinely reject bribes and won’t accept junkets or even a token gift. I knew this senior editor, who banged down the phone on Mulayam Singh Yadav (then the chief minister of the U.P. state) in my presence because the chief minister had dared to invite him for a “cup of tea.” A Rediff writer lived in a one-bedroom apartment in Mumbai because that was preferable to taking bribes from political parties. “Can you imagine how soundly I sleep,” he said.
The media is increasingly viewed with suspicion because these journalists use shoot-and-scoot methods, i.e., alleging the most outlandish things, stirring the pot of sensationalism, and then going underground
There is a close friend who doesn’t mind that all he has to show after 30 years of journalism is a two-bedroom flat in a middle-class enclave in Delhi. He refused to be part of his editor’s plan to blackmail political leaders by using his investigative skills.
However, there is a co-opted minority of journalists who are in bed with politicians, foreign agents, and corporations, and this is a huge problem. The media is increasingly viewed with suspicion because these journalists use shoot-and-scoot methods, i.e., alleging the most outlandish things, stirring the pot of sensationalism, and then going underground. By the time they are exposed, a few weeks would have elapsed, and the country would have moved on to the next big story.
The journalists who indulge in such harmful activities will pretend to be liberal and impartial, claim to be sophisticated listeners of Bach, and they will order single malt at a Khan Market eatery. But strip away the veneer of sophistication, and they are more likely to be flunkeys who have opted to become stenographers for their paymasters – political leaders, business houses, and foreign intelligence agencies.[2]
Note that these so-called liberals rarely, if ever, campaign for truly liberal issues – banning triple talaq, uniform civil code, legalizing prostitution, gay and lesbian rights, and so on. On the contrary, their agenda is to re-establish the old order, so the moolah keeps coming. The numerous hagiographic publications commissioned by crooked politicians keep these select journalists in good health as it involves foreign travel, free accommodation, fat payments, and shoddy work, which is exactly what they are capable of.
So, when former army chief General V.K. Singh talked about the press people turning into presstitutes, he was right on the money.[3]
Citations
[1] Why I can no longer laugh at Arnab Goswami (newslaundry.com); https://www.newslaundry.com/2016/07/29/why-i-can-no-longer-laugh-at-arnab-goswami
[2] Rajeev Sharma, journalist arrested for spying for China, gets bail (opindia.com); https://www.opindia.com/2020/12/delhi-hc-bail-journalist-rajeev-sharma-spying-china/
[3] VK Singh calls social media ‘presstitutes’ for linking him to video | Latest News India – Hindustan Times; https://www.hindustantimes.com/india/vk-singh-calls-social-media-presstitutes-for-linking-him-to-video/story-vr10EMShwuCxZUb73i7nEI.html