THE NEO JOURNALISM SCAM

Another 'great' scam broke the surface right beneath our noses last week. But most of us missed the 'tip of the scamberg' for various reasons.

This is the great Neo-journalism Scam. No newspaper has yet come out with investigative disclosures about it, nor have the omnipresent/omniscient channels aired any secret footage, though the whole thing had happened “right in their backyard”, so to speak.

Journalism was, in the good old days, confined to print and the average Indian still could recall names like The Times of India, Hindustan Times, Indian Express, The Hindu and a few more, not to forget those stout fourth pillars built in the vernacular. Those with long memories and a fondness for the heyday of journalism in India would surely recall the names of many stalwarts, adoration for whose iconic status made many a young man take up journalism as a career, and either make good (a rare event)  or, mostly, sink in a sea of drink. Today perhaps the only survivors from the army of old warhorses are people like Kuldip Nayar, S Gurumurthy and T V R Shenoy, the grand old men of upright journalism.

Journalism was mostly reportage, and reportage was largely about bringing before the common man things that he ought to care about and which affected his life and existence, and which he could easily understand once a capable journalist who 'knew his marbles' had spent some time analyzing the issue. Once in a while, once in "an exciting while", journalism was about digging muck, and bringing up murky issues and goings on and shining the light of disclosure upon them. This the general public enjoyed with glee, though mostly they were the victims of these scams the journalists dug up.  Politicians and corporates might borrow the phrase "who is afraid of (V) Woolf" to indicate their disdain for the pen-pushers, but they took care to wine and dine them and to be on the "right side" of these powerful scribes, largely from a fear of their ability to upset the apple cart with one flick of their pens, and secretly from the conviction that it was not easy to influence the true journalist beyond a point.

This comfortable state of affairs was upset with the arrival of private TV channels in the middle of the last century. With the proliferation of the 'visual media', a bevy of high-voltage, 'eye-candy' types replaced those who had studied the ropes of journalism. And who owned the channels? With the more than a crore of rupees a day hire for the satellite transponders and the other astronomical costs for equipment and studios, not to speak of the salaries of skilled technical and other staff, it was an expensive ball game. Result? Only the very well heeled could dabble with this new medium, the darling of the masses. And corporate money, black and white, found its way into the ‘channels’ and as everyone knows, (or should know) corporate cheques  comes with a lot of attached strings, visible and otherwise.

It is ironic to note the upsetting of journalistic values with the coming of visual entertainment. What once got the reader's respect was the journalist's perspicacity, his/her perseverance, and his upright reportage. With even the day’s news putting on the garb of high entertainment on television, the poor journalist who slogged in the background was forgotten and the limelight was upon the 'anchor' or the newsreader--whose journalistic acumen was virtually zero, but whose 'eye-candy' factor was near 100 per cent.

I am not for an instant forgetting stalwarts like Tim Sebastian of the BBC, who made watching an interview a uniquely cathartic experience. Nor am I insinuating that the Indian subcontinent and its television had spawned only duds. But that is all in the past...and passe. I am basing my take on the current crop of the “cream of Indian television journalism”. I had thought that people like Vir Sanghvi, Rajdeep Sardesai, Barkha Dutt et al were charged with the active blood of young go-getters who would stop at nothing when it came to bringing good TV journalism to the masses. But no more after their recent self-indictment -- in full view of the entire nation.

INDIAN TV JOURNALISM IS DEAD. What appears to wear its clothes and lip-syncs to an 'approved' script is the ghost of an accepted Indian practice--Paid Journalism. This then is the Neo-journalism Scam. Are there any more journalists of the old school left in India who could take up the Herculean task of digging up the truth behind this unsavoury transformation? No, the question is not WHETHER they were paid or not. They were, to judge from their 'convenient' silence and the adroitness with which they avoided all kinds of questions that would have occurred to a rookie journalist on a petty two-penny assignment. What would tax the investigative journalist's brains is --WHO paid the money and HOW MUCH was paid in order to buy their silence and their complicity.

I am, of course, referring to last week's nationally televised TAMASHA OF THE YEAR--the PM's "coming out party" on television before the cream of the media.

Interviews are about asking the right questions, beginning with the most innocuous perhaps, drawing the interviewee out with more related questions and then popping the quarter-million, the half-million and then the million-rupee questions that leave little squirming space for the person on the hot seat. Those who have watched Mr Tim Sebastian’s interviews would instantly know what I mean. But one thing has to be admitted--to the honest man who has nothing to hide, no interviewer can conjure up an instant nightmare, try as he might. It is sheer nonsense to believe that a 'clever' interviewer can 'trap' anybody. No, and NO. ONLY IF you are fond of dark corners to hide, then that is a possibility, where you will feel trapped by the spotlight of intelligent questioning.

If you watch a recording of the whole apparently well-rehearsed 'tamasha' with 'Singh as King', you would discover that not even a single worthwhile question was put to the PM. Nobody in this country is naive enough to believe that spirited youngsters like Mr Sardesai and others of his ilk have forgotten all that they had learned in the schools of journalism. Their apparent amnesia is the surest sign of their having taken "favours" to limit the interview to nothing but an exchange of sweet nothings.

Like the clarion cry of "physician, heal thyself", it is time for another loud exhortation to reverberate in the Indian media firmament now-- "Journalists, investigate thyself". Are we to believe that the whole thing was "spontaneous"? C'mon... How many meetings were there between the "powers that be" and at least some of the journalists (and their corporate cronies and bosses) which laid the foundations for the “interview”?? Back in the good old days when sages like Vinoba Bhave observed a vow of silence, people would throng to the prayer meetings at which he would finally break the silence to listen to his words of wisdom. Mr Singh after his long vow of silence, given to whom we dont know, needed to 'break his silence'. And the entire nation rallied before the TV sets to witness the great man wilt before the machine gun fire of questions and  spill the beans. But like every well-compered program, this too went to the complete satisfaction of the “backroom boys”. (A word of apology is in order—the gender distinction is out of place after Ms Radia and her adroit PR capers!)

The million rupee question...oops! the lakh-crore rupee question is, WHO PLANNED THE MEDIA DRAMA? What was the "quid" promised for the quid pro quo? Will we ever get answers to that and other related questions?

SHAME on you, the greats of Indian television, for not exhibiting the common sense of even a semi-literate man in the street, let alone that of an average journalist.

SHAME on you for lacking the courage to at least politely call a spade a spade.

SHAME on you for not knowing the difference between 'dharma' and 'adharma'.

SHAME on you for not doing your minimum to speak in defence of the poor millions of this nation at whom a pittance is thrown as subsidies.

SHAME on you for having willingly sold your integrity and HUMANITY, God knows for how many pieces of silver.

What shall serve to wash away from Indian journalism this limitless stigma? No “Ganga jal” for you, not so gentle men; your touch shall pollute the divine river beyond redemption. Perhaps the only choice before you now is "sati" --a jump into the purifying flames of the pyre of journalism that you chose to light on that day, unashamedly and with false unction.

                                                                * * * * * * * * * * * *