Forced journalism can't hijack public opinion

The falsified PTI dispatch of Sept 7 that YSR Congress party honourary president Smt. YS Vijayamma has not ruled out the party’s merger with the Congress reminds one of the famous English author G.K.Chesterton who once said, “Journalism largely consists in saying ‘Lord Jones is dead’ to people who never knew Lord Jones was alive.” 

The PTI reporter who made the story after meeting Vijayamma seems to have been inspired by   Chesterton’s words. He tried to implant a falsified thought in the minds of the people about something which they have not thought of till date.

As the party has said in its press release circulated to the media condemning the misinterpreted news story, the people in the state knew very well there is no need for YSR Congress Party to merge with any other party at any point of time.

In fact, people never entertained such a thought about the party and this is proved beyond any doubt in the recent by-election results.

However, political vultures and their stooges, who are now turning into political dummies in the wake of ever increasing popularity of YS Jagan Mohan Reddy despite his being jailed, are waiting in the wings to spread half baked truths about the party with a view to maligning it and downsizing its growing popularity. Notwithstanding the motives of the PTI in interpreting or misinterpreting of its staffer’s discussion with Vijayamma, its reporter is clearly at fault as his inspired journalism is aimed at strengthening the wings of such political dummies.

The PTI story said: “Asked specifically whether she would rule out the possibility of either YSRC’s merger or alliance with Congress, she merely said the future would decide that.”

If this is the tail end of the news story as it actually deserves, there could have been no controversy about the report but the national agency’s staffer had other ideas in mind. He chose to interpret Vijayamma’s cryptic reply ‘the future will decide that’ as ‘YSR Congress did not rule out the possibility of its eventual merger or alliance with the parent party’ with a particular motive to implant the idea into the public mind.

In a situation like this, the ethical part of reporting is involved and not the right of a journalist. A reporter is not in his right to implant an idea which is not there in the public mind. This is particularly so when the image of a political party is involved.

By adding an unwarranted interpretation to a remark and spicing it up with the statements of some leaders to substantiate the interpretation and to cap it all, making it a lead point of the news story is highly unwarranted and mala fide on the face of it.

At a time when the YSR Congress is poised to acquire the image of a mass based party by penetrating into the minds and hearts of the tens of millions of the people, such news stories could simply be part of unsuccessful attempts to hijack the public opinion.