Have they stopped asking questions?

Was it possible that Satyam fiasco would not take place if media had asked right questions at the right time? Or put it this way: may be Satyam scandal could have been averted if media were alert years back and done a bit of investigation (not sting operation!).
Rajdeep Sardesai in one of the Weekend Editions put it well: we (journalists) are not exposing corporates the way we do politicians and bureaucrats. There is much truth in what he says. Indian media are obsessed beyond limits with politics. Everyday when you open a newspaper you find more than 50 per cent of space being gobbled by politics and related stories. Broadcast media is no better. Even there you find politics eating up the prime time. So, corporate world and its pitfalls and scandals have escaped the media glare. In fact, when did you last hear a journalist writing an investigative piece on any corporate house? It is not without reason. Most media industries today are owned by corporates, or many of the corporate moguls are on the Board of Directors of media institutions. So, obviously you cannot expose someone of your own, can you?
Well, let us come to the main issue: reporters have stopped asking questions or pertinent questions. The major responsibility of media is not so much to give answers as raise questions; not even to find solutions to recurring problems. There is State and other organisations to do that. But the prime duty of media is to raise questions. Sadly, most media institutions today shirk from this duty.
Take for example the Mumbai terror attacks. Media were active alright. In fact, broadcast media went overboard making the whole scenario look like a bollywood extravaganza. But media did not raise important questions. In fact, they raised all wrong questions. Nobody asked as to why India should be subjected to such brutal attacks repeatedly and why the State cannot spend a portion of the humongous money it spends on border security, to beef up internal security. Our airports are armed with heavy security cordon. But look at our railway stations and bus shelters. There is only cosmetic security there. Media have stopped asking why should our railway stations and bus shelters not have as much security as airports. Aren’t lives of ordinary people as valuable and important as the elite traveling in the air?
Do reporters seem not bothered about probing? It looks as though they go to press conferences and are satisfied just with what has been doled out to them. What is not spoken, it seems, does not come into their purview. They seem happy with the lunch and dinner provided and the perks served at the end of the session.
So no one, for example, asks the question why so many outlaws repeatedly give a slip to the police accompanying them and are killed in ‘encounters’.
May be, journalists are not asking questions because questions can open Pandora’s Box and make them insecure. Sadly, by stopping to ask questions, reporters will only belittle an all important responsibility of media.