Dear Mr. Fourth Estate,
I write to you today, not to question why you exist, but to question how you go about your business.
News reporting in the true meaning of the term has ceased to exist and has been replaced by ‘infotainment’.
Gone are the days, when news reports stated crisp facts… verbatim reports of incidents as they happened.
Today, in between sessions of hyperventilation, finger jabbing, holding up sheets of paper with so called confidential information, 6-8 member panels and the general jamboree of screaming, shouting, accusing and ‘below-the-belt’ statements, the only thing that we miss out on, is the news.
News has been transformed into something that entertains, where the production values, music, footage and edits are more important than the news being reported.
It has turned into a virtual witch-hunt, where journalists in their various (and radical) avatars ‘grill’ a bunch of ill prepared spokespersons. The response from these spokespersons is not important, as more often than not, they aren’t allowed to speak. It is only important that they are made to feel as uncomfortable as possible, questioned without the expectation of an answer, cut off mid way through their sentences and not allowed to make a single point unless it favors our new national hero, the ‘news host’.
And ‘we the people’ revel in this.
It seems to have become our national hobby to misinterpret anything and every thing, take umbrage at statements made to mean something else, quote selectively and out of context and brand anyone who disagrees (depending on one’s position) as ‘mozzie’, ‘suckular’, ‘paid journo’ or ‘internet hindu’.
Where is the voice of moderation? What happened to free and unbiased reporting?
I am sick of hearing journalists voicing their opinion. My request… please stick to providing the news. We are capable of judging the same on our own. Don’t insult our intelligence. We are, after all, touted to be one of the most intelligent races in the world.
When I want an opinion, I’ll ask for it. Why is this not possible, Mr. Fourth Estate?
The nation wants to know!
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