I still remember those days when we were asked by our school teachers to read TOI to fine tune command over English Language. Well, I used to read it for comics and fun stuff. I guess, definition of ’fun stuff’ has changed for TOI and it has been providing fun stuff to adults lately. Most people here have elaborated this aspect in detail, so I won’t waste time and space.
One aspect that seldom finds mention here is TOI’s offer to ’sell’ news thru medianet. TOI started this last year and it can really be called yellow journalism or journalism at its worst. Media is considered a fourth estate of democracy. How can an estate of democracy be commercialized in such a brazen fashion! Or can we really call Indian media an estate of democracy!
I remember of reading a column by Sucheta Dalal on rediff.com some time back regarding this. She used to work for TOI and now she is a reputed freelance columnist and writes regularly for Indian Express.
She stated - ’Indeed, some TOI journalists believe that blatant ’planting’ of news and photographs by journalists acting in cahoots with PR agencies had triggered off the Medianet initiative. The group believes the newspaper business is no different from any other business and likes to refer to its various publications as brands or products. While readers know that advertisements keep the product cost low, they still buy a newspaper for its editorial content and not for its advertisements.
Clearly, the reader, who pays less than the price of a cigarette, a cup of tea or a paan, is totally and completely irrelevant and the group probably expects him to be suitably appreciative. When the reader is not discerning, his/her loyalty can always be bought through low ’invitation pricing’ of the publications or cross promotions, titillating photographs and stage-managed events.
The paper’s self-confessed love affair is with the advertiser and its flourishing bottomline gives it the power to desecrate editorial space and express the confident view that all other media houses will soon follow its example.’
I could not agree more. TOI was once perceived to be an ’old man’s newspaper’. TOI is so desperate to rid this perception that it has turned itself into a tabloid to ’attract’ predominantly young market share of India. When you see photos of half naked woman on the main page on the auspicious days like Independence Day and Republic Day, you can automatically classify that newspaper as a Tabloid, no matter what the dictionary definition states.
Dileep Padgaonkar famously stated that Sonia Gandhi?s becoming prime minister would be in tune ’with the highest Vedantic ideals’. Does he even know what Vedantic Ideals are? With Mr. Padgaonkar being executive managing editor, his views are widely manifested in TOI pages. The newspaper has become subjective rather than being objective in its news analysis.
What Rahul Gandhi wore on his first day in Parliament becomes first page news, poor dying in Bihar be damned. For TOI, Sanjay Bangar’s burial of Sidney Ghosts is more important that India Pakistan peace agreement in Islamabad.
People of India are really unfortunate that newspapers today are so desperate to prove their liberal bias that they intentionally omit real issues affecting people. I am not saying that all the criticism meted out to RSS/BJP is unwarranted; however, Congress/Left should also be criticized where such criticism is warranted. Think about people of India rather than falling into trap of Ideology. Leave ideological warfare to political parties and let people decide which ideology they want to subscribe to. Media just need to be informative.
I know, many will disagree with what I have said here. But I respect their views, even if they are contrary to mine, because that is democracy. But egoistic media is the last to respect others’ views, ever if it is the first to preach democracy. It is quite unfortunate for the country.