Has Indian Television Abandoned Journalism for Jingoism? A Scathing Critique by Justice Katju
Justice Katju questions Indian TV's shift from journalism to jingoism, comparing it to yellow journalism and state propaganda. Is this the Fourth Estate?
Is this the Fourth Estate, or the First Estate?
By Justice Markandey KatjuWhenever I turn on Indian TV channels, I see nothing but jingoism, braggadocio, flag waving, gasconade, hot air, rodomontade, bluster, cacophony, and Goebbelsian bombast, instead of cool, rational discussion and analysis.
Indian TV seems to have gone mad. Truth and facts mean nothing to most of our mediapersons. The competition among them is who can shout loudest in calling for war against those devils, the Pakistanis, and who can excel in yellow journalism, a sensationalistic and often irresponsible style of reporting, strongly associated with William Randolph Hearst and Joseph Pulitzer, who were prominent newspaper publishers in America during the late 1800s and early 1900s.
The term originated in the circulation war between Hearst's New York Journal and Pulitzer's New York World, where both papers sought to increase sales by using sensational headlines, exaggerated, unverified stories, and often even fabricated events.
Most of the Indian media, and particularly Indian TV channels, are worthy successors of Hearst and Pulitzer
The undisputed leader of this Charge of the Light Brigade is Republic TV, which has turned jingoistic and chauvinistic shouting, screaming, fuming, raging, foaming, blustering, and insulting those who oppose the anchor's views on the TV screen into a fine art, its invectives, vituperation, and fulmination usually directed against Pakistan, and often fanning communalism in India ( of course all calculated to please the government and raise the channel's TRP rating ).
The Republic usually brings hawks, like retired army officers or so called 'defence analysts' on its shows, and also sometimes Pakistanis who can be given a bashing
Some defence experts are not disputing that India has a right to attack Pakistan, but are only discussing the modus operandi.
Some TV channels have made the post Pahalgam attack situation into a BJP versus Congress match, usually bashing the latter
All this rhetoric and hot air furiously disgorged and spurted out by the jingoistic Indian media is on the assumption that Pakistan masterminded, planned, and executed the Pahalgam killings of 26 Hindu tourists. But where is the evidence for this assumption? Even asking this question is regarded in India as anti national, sedition, and a grave crime.
One is reminded of Lewis Carroll's 'Alice in Wonderland' in which the Queen of Hearts says '' Off with his head '' whenever any suspect is brought before her. When someone asked what about holding a trial, giving the man an opportunity of a defence before cutting off his head, she said '' Trial afterwards. First, cut off his head.
So the investigation as to who was the culprit can be held later, but first, Pakistan must be declared the culprit.
Those who committed this heinous act on 22nd April later disappeared into the nearby jungles. Who were they, Indians or Pakistanis, was there a mastermind behind them, who supplied them with the weapons they used, etc, is all unknown, and will probably never be known, for the reason given below :
And the masterminds who planned the Pahalgam attack, as well as the killers who implemented the plan, must be laughing at the stupidity of Indians and Pakistanis, Hindus and Muslims, who are at each other's throats, largely due to the tireless efforts of the great Indian media
The Indian media, far from being the Fourth Estate i.e. representing the people, as it did during the great French Revolution of 1789, has largely turned into the First Estate, i.e. representing the rulers
(Justice Markandey Katju is a former Judge, of the Supreme Court of India, and former Chairman of the Press Council of India. The views expressed are his own.)
