The first aspect that emerges frontally from such an exercise is a paradox. An institution that paints itself as patriotic, which is the first to call out the “anti-Indianness” of its peers, has in fact betrayed the country conclusively time and again during this entire period, doing irreparable damage to India’s image in the process.\https://thewire.in/media/backstory-indias-media-betrayed-country-war-time
What also emerges is the fact that in the end, after the shouting stopped, it was not the interests of the country that really mattered for this powerful section of the media, but the advertising spin-offs. TRPs can be tyrants, they can smash every bit of love for Mother India right out of the park.
Finally, the reportage of this period, especially of news television, only confirmed that time-honoured journalistic norms like accuracy, verifiability, fact checking, the seeking of trusted sources and the correcting of mistakes, have been replaced by rumour, speculation, spectacle and crude jingoism.
17/05/2025