Power without responsibility – that is what the media is so often called. The parallels between India and the US presently are fascinating. The difference is PM Modi is cool calm and collected when it comes to media lies.
Not all media produces fake news. But my God we know they do come up with fiction.
So before we suddenly jump to the defence of the freedom of speech let’s remember that some mainstream media you may be asking to protect your rights are the ones eroding them.
Pompous media is as bad as pompous politicians; lying deceitful -not all of them – but they know their clan and ilk and the game to be played. Don’t fall for it.
At least a Head of Government has the constitution binding them. The self-appointed guardians of our liberties in the media so often do not. How many decent papers and broadcast journalists are there? BBC, CNN, Asian Voice, Financial Times. Done.
The reason so much of the media is annoyed at Trump and Modi for that matter is that neither are scared. Politicians are frightened most days of the media. Every move is manicured and they are shackled. The media acts as a bully ready to pounce if you step out of line.
Trump and Modi don’t care. The power has shifted. And for that the media, the liberal media hates them for it. And that is good.
The reason for Levison was media power. Time and again from phone hacking to pure racist Daily Mail fiction they are a threat to liberty and the rabble rousers. They are closer to fascism than Modi or Trump who they proclaim are the enemy.
Bewarned, the media as a whole is not your friend. Whether NDTV shouting down at you or the Daily Mail. There are few friends you can trust in life. Pick those carefully.
Most of the time in life, people hear and see what they want to see. Cognitive biases are strong and persistent. They can be shaken off. We listen and read what we are most likely to agree with. And let us remember two years ago what happened.
The irresponsibility in this day and age, to exploit religious differences where none exist is both negligent and dangerous. ITV have done this by putting young Hindu adolescents in harm’s way.
The idea that a TV channel would inflame any part of the world, particularly Britain, for selling TV viewers should be criminal offence – wait, it is – incitement to hatred.
ITV did exactly that in broadcasting secret filming of a guest speaker at a Hindu charity, HSS. One for whom I too have been a guest speaker.
The guest speaker, in talking to adolescents spoke of Christian strategies of colonisation in India during the Empire and of problems within Islam.
He spoke not as an academic. He spoke in generalisations. Like your grandfather might, or President Obama admitted his white grandmother did of black people. That ugly hidden ill thought out prejudice which comes out in private conversations that does not represent our better selves in public.
Which is why ITV had to use secret illicit hidden recordings to find it.
