Media partiality is not a new thing in India but what is worrying is the growing tendency on part of a section of the media, both print and electronic, to ignore the public grievances and serious problems being faced by the people.
Though the phenomenon is not restrained to a particular state, the overt practice of some channels to take sides and ignore chronic public issues is on the rise in AP.
A case in point is the state bandh called by the YSRCP on Aug 31protesting against the Government’s failure to tackle the serious power crisis in the state.
While the YSRCP has given the call for bandh to highlight the seriousness of the power crisis and force the Government to find a quick solution to it, some sections of the media have decided to ignore the voluntary response of the people to the bandh call with a purely misguided and preconceived notion and an overt partisan outlook.
Getting political mileage from the state bandh has never been an agenda for YSRCP. The bandh was organized with only public cause in mind.
Notwithstanding the seriousness of the power situation in the state and the huge public response to the state bandh, TV 9, ABN Andhra Jyothy and some other TV channels have played it down and unethically thought it prudent not to report the success part of the bandh by falsification of the facts and depicting it as total failure.
In their thirst to satisfy their political masters, these channels have stooped to the lowest ebb by showing unrelated old video footage on their channles.
Why this extraneous considerations while reporting on public issues? Why this apathy to the people’s problems?
As the British historian Goldwin Smith once said that “Personality is lower than partiality,” the degradation of the Yellow Media channels only shows that selfishness is of paramount importance to them than a public cause.
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