Media becoming communal?

“Journalists say a thing that they know isn't true, in the hope that if they keep on saying it long enough it will be true.” - Arnold Bennett

People being divided on communal lines, though unfortunate, is nevertheless acceptable. Political parties sadistically trying to get political mileage out of communal politics, though difficult to accept, is still understandable; for, at the end of the day a politician will only look for his survival in the political fray.
But how can we understand journalists and media professional openly declaring their communal ‘credentials’? This is exactly what has been happening in Mangalore in the last few weeks. Very many reporters were indirectly, if not directly, involved in some sort of communal tension. There were also reports of reporters actually abetting communal violence. However, greater violence was done through their reportage. At least a few of them had the audacity to put the entire blame on the Church. They were resistant to at least accept that violence on minorities, on whichever pretext, was not acceptable in a democracy.
Why is such a development taking place among media professional? Do these journalists also experience some sort of insecurity that they need to align to some political party or communal organisation? Or do they slavishly accept the order of their superiors? It could be both. But the question is how can we call all that journalism? Reporters are supposed to be objective, at least when it comes to reporting sensitive issues. They are not to show any leaning to any political party. All that is good wisdom; but in reality, there is nothing called objectivity in journalism anymore. If one has to be objective one has to give up all adjectives. If a reporter calls a murder ‘brutal’ he is already giving his opinion. Or if a reporter terms Bishop Moras’s interaction with the CM as ‘lambasting’, we cannot call it objective, as Bishop may not have lambasted the CM. He may have just voiced his concern, of course, with a little impatience and anger.
So objectivity is relative. Nevertheless, objectivity should necessary be the ultimate goal of a journalist and he/she should strive to be objective at every beat.
What we have seen in the reportage of Karnataka violence is a subjective approach by many reporters, increasingly adding subtle comments to their reports. There was this lady of a news channel. After covering the Mangalore incident on one of those days, she added an unsolicited comment, ‘Unless there is serious rethinking on conversion, such incidents can only repeat,’ (or to that effect). First of all, has she to add her ‘wise’ comments in a report that is so sensitive? Secondly, who has given her the authority to evaluate constitutional rights? Thirdly, has someone told her that such violence will continue? Or is she just making an assumption? Is she aware that a communal force viewing her ‘report’ could get carried away? This was not only poor reporting; it was irresponsible and disgusting, to say the least.
Swapandas Gupta of the Times of India has a strong BJP allegiance, which everybody knows. But at least as a journalist he has the moral obligation to commit himself first to good journalism. However, he had no qualms in wholeheartedly endorsing Modi, even when the whole nation knows that it was because of him that three thousand Muslims were lynched in Gujarat. Journalism is just getting murkier.
Channels and newspapers were full of such stuff, though they did give a wide coverage to communal turmoil in the country. It is not news today to know that communal elements are increasingly spreading their tentacles within the newsroom. This development is mainly due to the fact that people from lower strata of society and the minority communities are either not getting into journalism or they are not given freedom to do objective reporting. We do require many more journalists from these communities in today’s media. One cannot expect a dominant class to be objective, especially when it comes to issues of dalits and minorities. We need more dalits and those from minority communities to do that.