Media into the hands of vested interests

The mushrooming of the medium of information and the “business of news” has quite paradoxically started defeating the very purpose for which it actually exists. The malaise is so deep rooted that the leading media houses don’t even feel shy of calling the newspapers a “product” where supplements are mostly paid ones. In fact, one of the largest media houses conveniently calls the edition as “Made in Delhi” with Resident Editors labeled as “Editor Delhi Market” and likewise. Therefore, when the very same newspaper does an expose in the name of social cause, the whole business of media seems to be sheer hypocrisy.

The expose of the Times of India on the capitation fee in the medical colleges and deemed universities is a Case Study for reasons more than one. The alacrity with which the expose was followed by a series of editorially driven news stories defied all news sense because the whole issue was merely stating the obvious, something we all know and have subconsciously accepted as a way of life. Even at the cost of being a devil’s advocate I must say that this was not something that came as a shock.

However, there is more than what meets the eyes in this case. There were very many factual anomalies in the whole reportage. It was said that the business of capitation fee is flourishing because the Medical Council of India is on largesse in granting the nod to all these medical colleges and deemed universities. It was alleged that it is the MCI which is actually encouraging the high capitation fee in these colleges and deemed universities.

As a communication professional I have been covering the sector for quite some time. To the best of my knowledge the Medical Council of India has no role in determining the fee of these colleges. Whenever a proposal to establish a medical college or deemed university is sent to the MCI, it is entitled to review it on a specified parameter only. It seems the sting operation was done in such a hurry that the reporters had no time to find out what is under the purview of the MCI and what the role of the University Grants Commission is.

Even when the UGC chairperson came on record to clarify to some other newspapers, the Times of India conveniently kept lambasting the MCI in its headlines. The satisfaction of “I did it” and “Impact of our expose” often takes us so high that we fail to see the logic and rational. The question that needs to be addressed here is that was it just the problem of perception in this case or there has been a bigger picture behind the episode.

Actually, the fact is that there is more than what meets the eyes. In the following week of the TOI expose, when the controversy started dying its own natural death, certain vested interests in whose hands the ropes of sting operation seem to have gone, started getting restless. The TOI had by then started downplaying it. It had never been earth shattering news in any way. And hence, the next round of media plant was planned.

But in their over zeal to do the things, they forgot the fact that the anonymous mail with fictitious and malicious information is never sent to all and sundry, including the competing newspapers of the TOI. Media got suspicious of the intentions of the mailer and in their cross checking of facts, it was clear that somebody was just using the media for their own vested interests.

The tonality of the media reports have since then been a bit different, though a section of them still seem to be determined not to accept that they have erred in their judgment. But their over zeal to rake up the same issue every now and then has been both perplexing and funny. The moot point here is that whether there should be any defined parameters for sting operation, or should the media be left alone to defame whosoever they wish to as per their whims and fancies.

ENDS……