Come, play dice.

For some reasons, which I cannot eloquently describe, over a period of time, I have developed immense hatred towards the media (read: newspapers and news channels). Earlier the same feeling of loath was limited to the biased and childish approach of these opinion distorting, truth-bending and deceptive media personnel; when they went about beating the secularism beat every time something saffron, separatist, Islamic, leftist, anti-Modi (NaMo), etc. became a USP. And with bias creeping further into everything they report, the hatred has snowballed into perpetual anger.

Correct me if I am wrong and I am not presenting my unwarranted verdicts on who is guilty and who is haloed. Shashi Tharoor seems to have lobbied for his girlfriend getting a share of the equity pie of an IPL franchise in return for her consultancy services. Interestingly, the same media which pitched forward numerous articles to support Tharoor’s UN Secretary General candidacy, which ‘lobbied’ for him through odes to his intellect and educational background, has placed him on the same dais where they have seated the supposedly unscrupulous IPL Chairman, Lalit Modi. They have dubbed the ‘act’ as shameful and unconstitutional and have callously printed about his political inadequacy.

Prannoy Roy runs NDTV. Arundhati Roy is his niece. His wife is the sister of Brinda Karat, who along with her husband Prakash Karat, is a key member of the CPI(M). NDTV endlessly aired debates in which pro Indo US nuclear agreement speakers were cornered by the Leftists. Arundhati had all the time to write about the ongoing insurgencies in India a day after 26/11. She wrote of how the Kashmiri Muslims are suffering under the yoke of the Indian Army. She wrote about how apathetic the state governments are towards tribal peoples of the Naxal infected areas and Christians. However, leaving aside the validity of her claims, there were no articles from her condemning the recent Dantewada massacre of Indian convoys. No articles on the recently surfaced shenanigans of some priests around the world. Likewise, these journalists took pains to find out the expenses incurred by Narendra Modi’s air travels. But there were no sting operations to discover the source of the pecuniary gifts bestowed on Mayawati. They were able to pin Manu Sharma down, but dared not to investigate (like they normally do) Satyendranath Dubey’s murder. They cussed Ram Jethmalani for choosing to defend Manu Sharma, but considered him as a divine intervention in Afzal Guru’s trial. And FYI, Afzal’s plea is being voiced by none other than Arundhati Roy.

These apparently powerful scribes have placed their sleuths everywhere, from the IT department to the CWG Committee and their job is to come up with a sellable article which can ‘sting’ and ‘enlighten’ people with previously unheard facts and disclosure of well-kept secrets. To them, with respect to the IPL, I need to ask a question. Where were you when you wrote and yapped about IPL becoming a television behemoth, crossing $2 billion in value and giving a neck and neck race to English Premier League? About a year back, Lalit Modi was a champion for saving a potential debacle by moving IPL to South Africa in little time, when security concerns plagued India. It is a different story now.

Everybody lobbies for one’s own personal interests. Why the double standards then?

How can opinions change in so less a time span? It is a slap on the discerning reader’s face. It confirms that our very unconscious assumption, that every article from a journalist’s pen is true to the core, is basically flawed. And yet we continue to let our beliefs be distorted. The fact that the media does help in reporting the otherwise unreported is undeniable. But the scales are tilted much in their favour, beyond redemption. And that is wrong. The same argument applies to surgeons. Sewing up a patient’s body while leaving behind a pair of scissors is still considered careless and criminal. No matter how many lives they might have saved.

Bored? Sorry.

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