When Barack Obama was running for president, the common joke in America was that win or lose, Obama was sure to get a job with MSNBC

Media is not in the wrong

When Barack Obama was running for president, the common joke in America was that win or lose, Obama was sure to get a job with MSNBC. Every media house with an ideology and conviction does so. Yes, that's the job of media houses and of journalists with character, ideology and convictions.

In UK and USA elections, newspapers rally behind individual parties openly. And it's not because the party owns the media house. That's how it is in all true democracies. India is, of course, is a "demonocracy". What the government of India does is that they create cases similar to what they did with Tehelka. So, before elections, Indian media is always polite about the ruling party even if they per se support the opposition. Even the largest media house, the Times of India, has not been spared in the past, with Ashok Jain being harassed for acting smart.

Coming back to the India media, I would like to make the point that Vir Sanghvi and Barkha Dutt have the right to their convictions and the right to talk to all kinds of people as journalists. Given human tendencies, 9 out of 10 human beings will brag about their connections at high places ufffd and journalists often use this as a tool to dig out other persons' perspectives. What is important is what they do finally. Vir Sanghvi, who most likely loves to talk more about restaurants, is perhaps the most reader-friendly print columnist. He has overcome his relative inability to think originally by becoming an outstanding presenter of a combined view of intellectuals.

One can rarely say that he has lobbied for wrong people through his columns. As for Barkha Dutt, she perhaps has the second highest number of enemies in the country ufffd after me!!! She is young, she is mighty successful, she altered the journalism landscape single-handedly with her fearless firebrand image and became an icon not only for women in this country but also for men! People who criticise her are purely jealous and unaware of the business of lobbying. Today, thanks to the social 'media', we have millions giving their often frivolous, uninitiated expert comments.

The intelligent word rarely gets any space those who are logical don't have that kind of free time to do Internet hooliganism. So years of hard work of Barkha Dutt is wiped off in a day. Her tapes reveal nothing but pure journalistic 'headline hunting'; and most non-jealous journalists who understand this profession will agree with me.

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