Indian media has for long been plagued by individuals born out of a perpetual quid pro quo between a few media houses and select political parties. This unholy nexus of the political class and media houses nurtured a specified class of ‘journalists’ who for long had thought of themselves as the sole repository of truth. After such ‘biased’ individuals have been called out multiple times, they have been shifting bases from one organization to another to maintain their credibility. New entrants in the Indian media scene have been the top targets however these new ‘entrants’ are also not free from biases and provide open ground for these so-called journalists to run their propaganda unopposed and unchecked.
In another incident BBC, which is supposedly a respected media organization has tweeted, which can be summarized as a desperate attempt to give a news item a shadow of their strong political bias.
https://twitter.com/BBCHindi/status/1127649356897759237
BBC’s agenda-driven journalism is hidden from no one so it is not exactly a surprise that they chose to mislead their readers on a sports news coloring it with political tones. This is no innocent mistake but deliberate agenda peddling in the middle of elections and such attempts can just be a product of sheer desperation to soothe their political biases or to please their political overlords.
BBC had earlier released a bogus report on fake news. In their report, they accused many reputed news media websites and famous personalities of spreading fake news. In their report titled, “Beyond Fake News”, BBC concluded that the maximum amount of fake news in India was being circulated in the name of nationalism and PM Modi. However, after receiving massive flak from users over social media the report was taken down.
Terming any centre-right organization or personality as fake news peddler speaks lengths of the ‘neutrality’ that organizations like BBC claim to wield.
However, with the advent of social media free run for these ‘journalists’ is no longer possible. This digitization not only helped politicians, journalist and others in connecting with millions with just a click of a button but also opened a two-way street for these millions to voice their opinions independently without interference or screening by any middleman and also to debunk white lies and pushed through these channels.
Loss of monopoly over media didn’t go down well with the elite groups who have now employed a different strategy, to discredit these online communities and personalities. Usage of proxies with ulterior motives to target these communities and personalities which are followed by millions of Indians seems to be the new strategy employed by these elites and their overlords.
Nonetheless, to put biased political colours on sports and other non-political domains is being used as a new tool by a ‘few’ media houses to polarise and mislead voters as India votes in the 2019 general elections. Putting political colours on sports is not only condemnable but also raises questions on foreign organizations trying to meddle with the Indian electoral process.