[akhilesh]

The problem is that even after knowing all this are we going to do anything? No.
The fact is objectivity doesn't find favor with the masses. There are very few people out there who would analyze news and instead basing their opinion on what media wants them to, they will form their own opinions and take out their own judgement.
In the older times we had people sitting around discussing politics to death but who has the time to do it now a days. It all fall backs to one thing, until we do something everything will continue unabated. Morals and morality have lost their fight with swanky malls, big cars and instant gratification these things provide.

[Newpunter]

The media has always been biased. NDTV has been pro Congress for a long time while some other channels have been pro NDA. I stopped watching NDTV after they started their Rahul pooja sometime back. We have daily articles on how Rahul was having lunch with poor people or was travelling in 2nd class on a train or staying at a poor guy's house.
But inspite of all this, the national media is much better than some of the regional channels. If you doubt me, just watch Sakshi TV or N TV ( the first is owned by Jagan and the 2nd is pro TDP ).
And supporting one political party is just one of the faults of our media. Sensationalising just about everything without showing any social responsibility is the most annoying trait of our media. Some regional channels still show programmes about the so called 2012 apocalypse without even showing any scientific arguments against it .
I still think Indian Express is one of the few newspapers that still stands for some ethics, although I might be wrong on that too.

[esteem_lover]

I HATE to watch our news channels, especially hate that barkha. Whatever happened to the original prannoy roy ?

[arvind71181]

Yes the media is completely biased and unethical. The only newspapers which I feel are good are The Hindu and the Indian Express.

The lesser talked about the TV news channels the better. I do not think there is even one channel which reports news as it is and as it should be. If its a sad news, they completely blow it out of proportion and keep hitting us with the same news again and again till we are tired of looking at the same. If its a happy news, they try their best to down play the same and then move on to more somber news.

I have stopped watching news for a long time now. The only original news and unbiased news which we receive is probably from Facebook, Twitter etc.

[Daewood]

Originally Posted by bkbkr1212

In the cricket betting scandal (Azhar-Hansie-Jadeja), one of the best sports journalists in India who worked for Hindu was also involved. Never saw his columns after that. His articles were like poems, pleasure to read.
He had to quit The Hindu

Was it Nirmal Shekar?
I too was a fan of him..easily the best sports writer they had.

Originally Posted by esteem_lover

Whatever happened to the original prannoy roy ?

Yes, me too miss the old "The world this week" Prannoy.
Sad that you too got gobbled up by capitalism. If you are still the same Roy sack Barkha immediatley.

[bkbkr1212]

Oh, now let us not all take a moral high ground.
Then there's no difference between us and the so called ultra-objective pseudo intellectual news anchors.
Yes, new channels and in general all media are supposed to be objective.
But we must keep in mind that all these are run by human beings who *cannot* be 100% objective.
All (including news anchors) will have some kind of bias towards a political party. That's not a big fault. Being completely apolitical, in my view is very very difficult.

From the posts, it is very easy to figure that people who posted have their own likings and biases.

And let's not write obituary to a channel like NDTV or Hindustan times just because two of their journos went in a tangent they shouldn't have gone.
Dr.Prannoy Roy, Vikram Chandra and few others are still there. So I am still biased towards NDTV.

Barkha, anyway, was(and is) just a hollow-brain. Old saying, "empty vessels make most noise" applies to Barkha, Rajdeep, Sagarika and most of all Arnab.

And also let's not forget that there were 40 odd journalists involved (some much more senior than Barkha) in Radia tapes.
Who knows, how much more Mnau Joseph and Vinod Mehta have in their kitty ? ;-)

This Arnab guy says things like "Let us decide now on this channel". And he is talking about things of national importance on a channel whose parent news paper is nothing more than a toilet roll.

Their front page news articles are Ash-Abhi marriage(with photo), Sania's engagement and break up and blah blah blah. So can't expect anything more from this channel.

[download2live]

I was going to start a thread similar but related more to Wikileaks.

I have seen corruption prevailing at every level. And everywhere. In every country.

Media mafia is just one facet of it.

I have spend many hours nay days thinking of how the system can be reformed so that world follows the morals, morals which were taught to me when I was a kid.

And the only conclusion I have arrived at is:
1. Powerful rule. Powerless are ruled. Law of nature.
2. Man by nature is evil.

No matter what form of govt we take (democracy, aristocracy, dictatorship, communism, capitalism), people will find ways to be corrupt and do unethical things.

This media mafia is just a part of the problem whose solution unfortunately does not exist.
How do you change human nature? That is the real problem.

We can come up with regulation rules etc etc but we cannot change human nature which is evil, greedy and power hungry. And Barkha, Vir, Raja, Kalmadi etc are just doing what by nature any human would do. No matter how much we educate them. I do not find any difference between Lalu and Barkha. In fact the so called common man of India, if given a chance to do what Kalmadi or Raja did, will most probably do the same.

So Barkha, Vir, Raja and company. I forgive you. You are just humans.
Equally naked under the fancy clothes you flaunt as rest of us are.

Things which trouble me are what I am supposed to teach my kids? The same hollow morals which were taught to me? Won't I be doing a disservice by feeding them on lies? Or should I tell them what really happens in Human society? The rule of jungle.

PS:
I stopped watching news on TV since last 8+ years.

[jnpai]

I am reminded of a famous quote:
" The truth of any subject is lost forever when journalists lay their hands on it"

How the Media went about protecting their own brethren by keeping mum is another story in itself.

NDTV's/ Barka's "valiant" attempts yesterday, notwithstanding, no convincing arguments came from her to the query why she did not report Radia's lobbying as a breaking news item.For once Barka had her cover blown off. The gentlemen on the panel were very kind in their questions.Another case of "FIXING"?
Barka claiming that NDTV would not have aired the raw tapes is a sic joke.

I am also reminded of a James Bond movie where the villain -a media baron - creates a series of deadly events; which his media group is always the first to report.They always report first because they create the event itself.

We are not far from that are we?

[Chopper]

Voted YES.
I too watched yesterday’s show and Barkha was trying to explain others about the ethics in journalism . She did not bother to answer the questions asked by Manu Joseph and was trying to go after him. I think both of them took it personally and others intervene on right time.

[Sn1p3r]

Old habits die hard, in schools we were made to read newspapers and prepare the news which I was signed to for many a years. Earlier it used to be few pages of action oriented journalism with real News. Then came ads, paid news and capitalism.

I still buy Newspapers as wife has her fill of fun early morning. I was reading HT today in a jiffy when it stuck me, that its so jazzed up with graphics that deterre you from reading and that is how mind is programmed.

I voted Yes. First hand experience of news channel covering up an event where I was participating and they (most of the revered names in media) demanded money to air the interview or should I say paid ads in news format. I refused but they still shot few videos standing a bit farther.

I have lived in EU for some time and when you look from outside and the multi-dimensions drawn by the media there, on the same event where Indian media is just blabbering to satiate the human emotion running high at the moment. Peepli live movie is so true.

CNN and BBC are also pro nationalist and a brain wash, quite evident. So is our media. And then we berate Chinese that they have no freedom.

@jnpai: We are already living in the same world. Bomb blast in XYZ countries killing ABC citizens so that ABC can retaliate and kill LMN country for causing the same. Few media persons have more info than the investigating authorities. Sensational

[Xinger]

I remember a few years ago there was another controversy involving NDTV where they were accused of only hiring people who were 'connected,' i.e., sons and daughters of the rich and powerful, the decision makers and the power brokers from all walks of life.

Now this is again on the face of it a sound strategy for a news organisation, as it gives them easy access to the actual newsmakers, gives them an 'in' where other newsmongers would be kept 'out' of the loop. After all, this is how things work, when an important national security issue breaks, whose channel is the home minister first seen on in a panel discussion? Which channel gets the first sound byte? In a scenario where a lead time of even a few minutes gives you the right to brag,''XYZ was the first to bring you this breaking news', for months, this would be invaluable.

So maneuvering to get close to the ones in the corridors of power to make them trust you and leak things to you first is an invaluable tool for a journalist. But when does it cross the line?

Barkha knew that Radia, who was the PR person for both TATA and Reliance (both major players in telecom) was lobbying to get Raja the telecom portfolio and did not report it, it was certainly crossing the line.

[CaliAtenza]

Every tv news channel here is pretty much like FOX News; as in everything is overhyped and spun until you are blue in the face. I'd rather watch the BBC or CNN. I think any day now some of these news anchors will get their own shows within the channel a la fox news, msnbc, etc. As someone who has lived in India for the past 5 years, it sickens me that people don't even want to change the system. But then again guess when you have your fancy tv, nice big house, nice car, etc...who really cares as long as they are rich and well off. how do these same politicians year after year keep getting elected? Hey, at least in the US we do "throw the bums out" after some time. The main problem I see here in this country is that the vast majority of people lack basic respect and manners, in regards to themselves, others, and their surrounding environment. The politicians elected here, the scandals that happen, and the news channels themselves, are a reflection of that. Talking about it here on teambhp isn't going go help the situation untill someone takes a stand and says something against all of this.

[gkrishn]

Originally Posted by Daewood

I stopped watching NDTV 24X7 the day they showed their might to a poor indo-canadian blogger after he critizised Barhka Dutt for her coverage of 26/11 live.

Hey, can you give more info on this? new one to me. didnt know what really happened.

And hats off to the original whistleblowers Outlook and Open magazine.

J Gopikrishnan this guy is the original whistle blower. from pioneer, which again is heavy duty bjp supporter.

Originally Posted by esteem_lover

Whatever happened to the original prannoy roy ?

Yes. Tell me about the "world this week" from DD days. That was a gem of journalism. Got me fixated to "news" very early on. Nowadays they only care about TRPs.

[Daewood]

Originally Posted by gkrishn

Hey, can you give more info on this? new one to me. didnt know what really happened.

A copy of the deleted blog titled "Shoddy journalism" by Chetan Kunte is still here in this forum
NDTV censored blogger over criticism of Mumbai terrorist attack reportage, 27Nov 2008 - SantaBanta Forums

Another thread discussing the action of NDTV against Chetan.
Muffling a Blogger

[PAVAN KADAM]

Nowadays, media is all about higher TRP's and fake made up news.

Take for instance, a simple Media channel turned Karnataka politics upside down, though the present govt., had to face lot of ire due to media's biased behaviour.

This never happened when the earlier govt was in power, Why........?

But the above link is a big shocker and an eye opener. Never knew all this can happen.