Media Coverage for Sale in India

Anuradha Raman’s recent article, News You can Abuse in Outlook is scary. Anuradha details how editorial space in newspaper is available for sale and political leaders can access favorable coverage in exchange of cash.  Here is a sample of what Anuradha offers to her readers: When Outlook sounded out Haryana chief minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda about allegations doing the rounds that he paid for favourable news during the assembly elections in October, he was surprisingly candid. “When I noticed the leading paper of my state printing baseless reports on its front page day after day,” he said, “I called them up and offered money to print the right picture. The paper in question apologised. They even returned the money taken from my rival to publish news items against me.”

The article is laden with many similar examples. Parcha Kodanda Rama Rao of the Loksatta Party paid Rs 50,000, yet lost the assembly election from Warangal West in Andhra Pradesh. According to Rama Rao, “I was worried readers weren’t even aware I was in the fray. To prove a point I called a reporter in Eenadu and paid 50,000. I got three and a half page features highlighting my worth as a politician.”
According Hussain Dalwai, Congress Spokesman, Maharashtra, “Nothing was published unless you gave money. In fact, in some media sections different deals were struck with owners and reporters.”
In Maharashtra, Chief Minister Ashok Chavan declared he had spent just Rs 11,379 on advertising but as English daily The Hindu reported recently, this was hugely disproportionate to the reams and reams of positive coverage he got in the media. Tacitly, of course, additional sums would have been paid by either his party or his well-wishers.
The print media has its own defenses to offer. Like a top management executive from Punjab Kesri (readership 1.04 crore) who admits that the newspaper made anywhere between Rs 10 crore and Rs 12 crore during the assembly election season. “We had to go in for selling editorial space,” he says, “because of tremendous pressure from politicians. We were also being pushed by the so-called national English dailies who had their packages and were mopping up revenue. We could not have missed out on the opportunity.”

Neelabh Mishra in Every Word for a Price and Vinod Mehta in Please Do Not Sell explore similar issues of cash tipped editorials in the media. Vinod Mehta opens his article with a thoughtful analysis: Indian media doesn’t do introspection. We recommend it to others—MPs, political parties, militants, judges, scientists…. They are all advised to look deep inside their own trade and clean up the rot. Meanwhile, the rot creeping into the fourth estate is studiously ignored or airbrushed, usually by organising a “studio discussion” in which the citizen is asked: Does the media need to be accountable? Discussion over. Issue over. Fortunately, even that stratagem is wearing thin. The chicanery is conspicuous.

Media bias is not a problem limited to India; all countries, democracies included, face the challenge of biased coverage in the media. The conservative bias of Fox News is a widely recognized fact in the U.S. But media is mostly expected and accepted as being ideologically biased. Over a period of time, readers realize the ideological leanings of a media house and comprehend information accordingly. Is an ideologically biased media better than cash biased one? In a country where ministers are not loyal to their party ideology, can media outlets be expected to hold ideological preferences? Biased media reporting on political corruption: which is the greater evil for India?