By Chitra Subramaniam

Galling, vicious and vile. I have no other words to describe the journalism that some star anchors and talking heads indulge in every day. In fact, it is not journalism, and I don’t know what it is. This much is certain – I do not wish to dignify muck by any other name because muck it is. When you have to lean on little children with skull caps to do your bilious bit, it is not journalism – it is an outpouring of hatred and venom that is in your system. Your own inadequacies limit you, so you look for helpless people in difficult situations, and you stick your microphone and cameras on them.

To those who call themselves journalists, I ask – how do you see yourself in the mirror every day? How do you sleep knowing fully well that your irresponsibility and ego may kill someone, fan a communal riot or lead to fights with no beginnings and ends? How many lies do you spread in your newsroom every day in the name of journalism?

We will fight you tooth and nail.

Journalism was a part of India’s freedom struggle. Have you not read the Indian Constitution and the Preamble to it? Does that not mean anything to you? Have you read the debates in our Constituent Assembly to know that men and women, brilliant minds, debated so many issues for months before the final document emerged? You can judge them with hindsight – what would you have done in their place? Oh, why do I even ask – you would have run into the safety of your gated house or community or pigeon holes of suspicion and despair called newsrooms you run from where you would hold forward on courage and truth, both of which you cannot even spell let alone live up to.

Read more: https://theprobe.in/we-will-fight-you-tooth-and-nail/