[icernet] Corruption and Unethical Practices in the Media

[Arul Selvan]

  "Can any of you define a journalist?"

News provider. Informer. Practitioner of the noblest profession.

The boss laughs.

"Nah, a journalist is only the lowly employee who fills up the space 
between advertisements."

The scribes smile.

The above quote is attributed to the owner of one of India's leading 
English dailies. Unfortunately, that is what journalists, and 
journalism, and the media, have become. Everything is for sale. You have 
the money, we have the space. You start a lousy new business, rush to 
the media. Pay up your advertorial fee (a commercial cross between ads 
and editorials), and we focus on making you better than the best. The 
media is as much a business as any other. It is a tool, a strong one, in 
the hands of the powers that be. Governments use it to spread their 
nefarious propaganda, businessmen to promote themselves, journalists to 
extract their lowly share of the pie.  The biggest newspapers in the 
country are owned by some very shrewd businessmen. And while money might 
be being lost, the media means power. Even the politicians understand 
this. The Shiv Sena itself has a mouthpiece, Saamna, with which they 
brought Mumbai down to its knees in January 1993. Gujarat's vernacular 
daily, Sandesh, incited people with photographs of dismembered bodies 
during the riots last year. Dainik Jagran was reprimanded by the Press 
Council of India for "exaggerating news after the Ayodhya demolition", 
thus provoking the masses.

Source:
http://www.dailypioneer.com/vivacity1.asp?main_variable=MEDIA&file_name=med1%2Etxt&counter_img=1