Today the media, taken in its entirety, defines and controls people's behaviours, government policies, corporate interests and world affairs. Considered the fourth estate of democracy, media brings instant news and information from any part of the world to our living rooms and even to our pocket devices just by pressing a button. It has become an essential element of our survival in the modern world. Media can make or break people's lives, fortunes and empires. The question is, powerful as it is, how far does media stand for truth, justice, honesty and impartiality?
Recently, when a huge case of corruption came to light in India at the government level, the role of media to get to the bottom of the case and punish the guilty remained crucial. But it was shocking to see that the mainline media simply buried the whole issue under the carpet. The reason was obvious: it would hurt the interests of some of the big names in the corporate world who were clearly involved in the scam. Money and influence overpowered truth and justice.
It is a myth that media is impartial and is on the side of truth. Every single media establishment twists the hard news to fit into its ideological angle or interests and leanings and dish it out to the customer to swallow. The common people simply take it as 'the truth'. Their case is like that of the man who bought a goat and was taking it home. The thieves who wanted to snatch the goat from the man played a trick. They came one by one and told him: “What a fine dog! How much did you pay for it?” But the man insisted it was not a dog, but a goat. However, when three or four thieves repeated it at regular intervals, the man got confused.
The last thief asked him: “It’s a goat? You call this a goat? Then, respected man, the definition of goat needs to be changed! If you call this a goat, then what will you call a dog? But it’s up to you. You are a learned man; you can change its name if you want, but the fact is that it's a dog. Nothing changes just by calling it a goat.” Thus the man was led to believe it was a dog and left it for the thieves to take.
The story tells how the media fools common man to reject truth and accept falsehood by repeated servings of lies. Media continues to make many dogs out of goats!
