Comments
Come 9 pm every day, the high-decibel hypartisanship and hectoring of studio guests that passes for television journalism constitute, for the most part, a disgrace to the profession. In their quest for TRP ratings, celebrity TV anchors — some more than others — have elevated shrillness of tone and manufactured outrage to a performance art with their inquisitorial, even prosecutorial, rhetoric. Nuance has no place in this parallel universe; nor is there even a pretence of objectivity in the nightly slang-fest that evidently caters to the lowest common denominator of television audiences. The toxicity afloat on the airwaves is manifestly contagious, going by the virulent spread of the disease to many more channels.
For anyone who is genuinely concerned about the dire state of journalism, this is disquieting at several levels. Yet, responding in the way that the newly elected MLA from Gujarat, Jignesh Mevani, did in Chennai on Tuesday — by asking for the microphone of Republic TV channel to be removed as a condition for his addressing a press conference on the sidelines of an event — is also problematic. Strikingly, the press corps in Chennai stood in solidarity with their disbarred colleague from the Republic, and the press conference was eventually cancelled.
However much Mevani, the firebrand Dalit leader, may feel he has been wronged by the channel’s propagandistic style, a demand such as the one he made reflects an equally disturbing imperiousness that ill-befits an elected representative, especially one who is being projected as personifying the future of Indian politics. Any accredited journalist is entitled to attend a press conference, and to seek to keep out a media outlet from such an event — on the grounds of perceptions about its lack of professionalism — is to slide down a slippery slope. That some activists who claim to stand for liberal values are applauding Mevani’s stand points to a perversion of the idea of liberalism. Television journalism as it is practised today may be grievously flawed, but the remedy does not lie in arbitrary abridgment of the cardinal principle of press freedom.
Associate Editor
Comments
COMMENT NOW
Comments
Comments have to be in English, and in full sentences. They cannot be abusive or personal. Please abide by our community guidelines for posting your comments.
We have migrated to a new commenting platform. If you are already a registered user of TheHindu Businessline and logged in, you may continue to engage with our articles. If you do not have an account please register and login to post comments. Users can access their older comments by logging into their accounts on Vuukle.