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| Sunday, 19 September 2004 |
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Features |  |
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The right column The state media is to get a new look, a new vision, if one believes the loud pronouncements of the Minister in charge. I for one would support the Minister with no reservations. Not that I am one of his henchmen, I do not even know whether he has any. I believe as a Minister he may be having some. Henchmen or not, I know there is a species of individuals who hang around VIPs, pose as their confidantes and often make life miserable for their masters. My support is pledged for another reason. I am always for new things, new proposals, and new visions. Some irrational thought in the back of my mind says that new is better. May be I am also sick of the present, like the Minister. I was deeply engrossed in a daydream visualizing the new state media when a colleague told me that in future the state media has been asked to be truthful. "You must tell the truth," the President is supposed to have told state media personnel. What have they been doing so far if they have not told the truth? As far as I know they have faithfully reported what their political and managerial bosses had said. If it were not the truth, who lied - the bosses or the reporters? May be neither lied. Their perception of the truth may have changed. As French philosopher Joseph Joubert said what is true by lamplight is not always true in the sunshine. Any babe knows that as far as politicians are considered what is true for them in Opposition is different from what is true for them in Government. Truth is not absolute. It is always relative. In any given truth there is a grain of absolute truth, nothing more. It is this relativity that helps politicians to wriggle out of embarrassing situations. Contemporary media is mostly stage-managed or state-managed. Peruse any newspaper. You would see political, administrative or corporate power groups have supplied eighty percent of news content. It is not the media but the media managers that should tell the truth. - the Sceptic |
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