Readers’ comments: Real journalism is dead – and channels like Times Now are to blame

Media watch

In the battle to attract a bigger audience and at the same time take its frustration out on Republic TV, Times Now has completely lost sense of ethics (“Times Now’s Tejpal tapes mark a new low for journalism. Now, it’s the turn of viewers to speak up”). But, when was the channel ever ethical? Even when Arnab Goswami spearheaded its “campaigns”, all I could sense was a different kind of PR practice! Earlier, we had one such channel and now we have two.

It is time the audience becomes more active and puts a stop to such nonsense. However, this is easier said than done as such media houses have huge monetary backing from the groups that own them and the political parties that govern them.

Real journalism is dead and that is the harsh truth. And even if it does exist in the form of alternative media outlets, the trust among the active audience is thinning by the day. Channels like Times Now and Republic TV force the audience to get used to taking news with a pinch of salt.

It is a shame that the Fourth Estate is digging its own grave. While some are doing it in the form of PR campaigns, others are writing editorials that mock sensitive issues like the Kathua case (like The Sunday Guardian’s “Anatomy of a Concoction”). – Utsav Basu

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This outrage on Times Now’s Tarun Tejpal tapes is not only misplaced but also biased. The channel is not biased the way Scroll.in is. Please do not try to sell your agenda at the behest of the pseudo-secular and anti-Indian lobby. – Ganapathy V

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The author has hit the nail on the head. Other than making noise, this channel does nothing. I stopped watching Times Now a long time ago. – B Shiv Kumar

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I find nothing wrong in airing the crime committed by Tarun Tejpal, who had entrapped Bangaru Laxman in a most wicked manner. It is poetic justice that he is at the receiving end now. You seem to be more worried about Tejpal than the survivor. As it is, journalists have already stripped all clothes, why hesitate to remove the cap? Your sympathies and concerns are selective. – Shriram Bapat

Cobrapost expose

Most mainstream media channels are of no use to man or beast anymore (“Cobrapost exposé shows Indian media is sinking. Now we can fight back or be drowned for good”). As viewers, we were well aware about the propaganda by the BJP and its associates. They are dividing this country, manipulating the vote bank through the media (paid goons) and social media networks like its IT cell. But Cobrapost has ripped apart the mainstream fake media. Their work must be appreciated and followed up with legal action (even the Constitution is in danger). – Kousar Sheikh

Highway politics

It is a sad state of affairs in the country if the public, who funds these projects through taxes, has to wait one-and-a-half months to use them after completion just because the high and mighty don’t have the time to cut the ribbon or arrange photo-ops (“The Daily Fix: Does the Modi government expect to win 2019 by becoming Inauguration Sarkar?”). The prime minister hogs photo sessions and the media focusses on his face, clothes shoes, spectacles... and then of course, there’s a long speech, to show how bad the Congress has been for the country and how good the BJP is! So for all this drama, the grand inauguration of the Eastern Peripheral Expressway was delayed and the Supreme Court had to issue an ultimatum! Shame on this model of governance. – Anjana Kumar

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I started reading Scroll.in with great expectations. Increasingly, I find it to be highly biased against Prime Minister Narendra Modi and it seems to be part of the anti-Modi brigade though it is hiding its real intent cleverly. Sorry to have to say this. – Ashok Kumar

Lessons to learn

I am an American who knows very little about Indian education (“Fake news, paid news thrive in intellectual passivity – in India, blame it on the education system”). But I spent a few weeks working with an NGO in Kalwa slum near Mumbai earlier this year. The programme I was connected to is one about supplemental educational. We were there primarily to teach English to local kids in Class 3 and Class 4. One of the things my co-volunteers and I noticed was the lack of critical thinking skills or creativity in education. The focus of the programming these kids received was to buttress their regular school education using the materials they used in their classrooms. The focus was on rote learning, designed to help them pass their exams at the end of the school year. (Also, the books they use in their regular schools look like leftovers from the British – they have few Indian stories.)

When we tried to conduct various activities – for example, seating the kids in a circle and playing games using English words that required them to either tell us something about themselves or create a story – they had great difficulty. It wasn’t a language issue; we had translators in the classrooms so the children could express themselves in Hindi if they didn’t have the English words. We all knew that kids this age are great at playing games on their own and making up stories, but for these children, the concept was foreign to them in a school context.

So while you point to education as complicit in the acceptance of fake and paid news, I agree, but I think there are much more fundamental problems with government education that result in this acceptance and passivity. When children are taught to think critically and creatively in the classroom, those skills manifest in life outside of school and into adulthood. Again, I accept that as a non-Indian who hasn’t studied in the Indian education system, I may be speaking out of turn and I may be wrong about how the education system works. But I can say with confidence that developing critical thinking skills would result in less passivity and acceptance of fake and paid news and would benefit everyone.

In the US, we face the same issues with respect to fake and paid news, and one reason for this acceptance among part of our population is the same lack of critical thinking. – Carol Spanbock

Thoothukudi protests

Those who work in Sterlite’s Thoothukudi plant may have a lot of faith in their organisation (“View from the other side: Sterlite workers attacked by Thoothukudi protestors recall the terror”). But the many poor and illiterate people living in the vicinity of the factory were enchanted by job opportunities and unaware of the consequences of having such a plant in their neighbourhood even as the company and the government failed to create awareness. Now, nearly 2,300 people are suffering from cancer or skin disease because of pollution from the plant. The groundwater is also not potable. And several people have lost their lives in the police crackdown on the protests. – Gladson Durai

Tainted banks

It is time the endless saga at ICICI Bank is brought to an end to ensure ordinary people’s faith in the Indian banking sector, already under huge strain in the wake of the scam unearthed at state-run Punjab National Bank, is restored to some extent (“Market regulator SEBI sends notice to ICICI Bank CEO Chanda Kochhar over loan to Videocon Group”). Deadlines should be set for completing inquiries by multiple agencies that are looking into the allegations against ICICI Bank. The government should put in place an effective oversight mechanism to ensure that investigations are better coordinated and move speedily.

The board of ICICI Bank, which has been very vocal in its defence of the bank, should also, in the highest traditions of corporate governance, cooperative with the investigative agencies to ensure the truth comes out. – Sumali Moitra

Literary legacy

Brilliant! Bharathiyar’s impassioned songs bring tears to my eyes (“Why does Subramania Bharati mean so little to non-Tamil India?”). I have always wondered why he is not present everywhere in India. Can someone start a movement to bring him to the attention of people across the country?

We can begin by asking advertising agencies to use his songs and messages in advertisements. You have opened a window. Now show us the way forward! – Geeta Ramakrishnan

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Why doesn’t the article even acknowledge that language restrictions is one of the reasons why Bharati is not known outside the Tamil linguistic communities? This omission makes the whole article appear as if the north is responsible for Bharati’s relative lack of countrywide recognition! – Nehal Medh

An inspiring story

Seldom have I come across a story so pure and heartwarming that it has beckoned me to go beyond merely reading and forwarding it online (“Why a 66-year-old Maharashtrian villager has been sending congratulatory postcards to strangers”). The story of Annappa Chougule was one such. In today’s day and age, where we are constantly bombarded with news that is replete with doom and gloom, stories of such inspiring individuals serve to reinstate my faith in humanity and the importance of doing good in this world. I can’t help but quote Bilbo Baggins from The Lord of the Rings when he said: “There’s some good in this world Mr Frodo, And it’s worth fighting for.” – Somesh Mathur