Life of A Bubble

In journalism, facts are always sacrosanct, but the facts alone never rise up to a conclusive truth, both are different. When facts come from various heterogeneous sources, the validation, analysis, and inferences drawn on them all depend upon the intellectual mettle of the editorial team of a media house. The editor is the judge who always balances between the outcome of facts and rational conclusion. In no circumstances, a precariously inferred editorial judgment can be contested with the veracity of facts because if that could have been so the media could have turned into a soap opera house where skepticism and conjecture rule the roost. Of course, some media houses do believe in this kind of tabloid journalism to increase their readership or viewership.

In the post-Independent period, if any media report has gone formidably wrong is the report "The January night Raisina Hill was spooked: Two key Army units moved towards Delhi without notifying Govt" published in the Indian Express on April 4. The report not only reflects the collective penurious judgment of the editorial team of this newspaper, but also it dangerously reveals the low institutionalized IQ that the tribe called journalists possess and often use it for creating jitters among readers. Well, this is another media gimmick to perpetuate sensational reports for acquire more eyeballs when the newspaper internalizes the fact that it's ABC rank is moving southward.

Well, let's get down to brass-tacks. There are two theories that influence the genesis of this story. First, what prompted Sekhar Gupta to put him in the shoes of a reporter and push such a stinky, unintellectual, hyperbolic story on the front page is an indication of the plummeted readership of Indian Express in all these years. Second, in the nexus between arms lobby and bureaucracy, media has turned out to become a harlot in displaying all wrong innuendos to attract customers (read readers/viewers). In a democracy, the role of media can't be enfeebled, but the growing instances of pulverizing truth and promoting sensation have put a question mark on the probity of media. Fewer facts and a blunt ego of understanding the facts from the pith of real issue, without even having deep domain competency, are a dangerous outcome of free press.

The myopic “coup” story is just the menacing tip of the iceberg called investigative journalism a specialized domain in media studies that prompts all and sundry to tread on the slippery slope of truth seeking, but that aspect of human endeavor is neither a child's play. And investigation is rational when all sides of the story have been scrutinized threadbare and the analysis is done based on considering all possible parameters that have a stake in shaping the singular, incontrovertible judgment. Mr Gupta, are you listening? Take a snap before the bubble goes burst.