AAM AADMI PARTY AND THE MEDIA BY SHANTONU SEN

The high voltage exchanges in the electronic media on General Election 2014 and related issues of public discourse are attracting viewers just not on prime time. It seems the various news channels both English and Hindi are airing only views of political parties and their cause and effects at all hours of the day. The most feisty of all that is aired is the portrayal of activities of the AAP party , its spokesmen and its leaders.. Many channels , their anchors air with great relish how every hour this party is loosing credibility, how duplicitous it has turned out to be and how rapidly its supporters are leaving it in great numbers.

They find that airing the activities of AAP is news and so they air it . These very channels gave scant footage to AAP in its early days. When it made its stunning debut in Delhi only then news channels saw AAP was news . Having missed predicting its great foray in Delhi most news channels, in the back of their mind, resented the attention they are presently compelled to pay to AAP. That they have resented doing so comes to the fore when they keep on mentioning that AAP and Arvind Kejriwal should be grateful to these very news channels whom they now charge being guilty of airing paid news on behalf of Narendra Modi and BJP as they gave them prominence when they were nothing. This claim is considerably exaggerated. Only after their unbelievable victories in Delhi the Media began to lavish attention on AAP and then , quite often, the AAP received much more attention than other National and Regional Parties. That was for their own TRP and not because they were in love with AAP. Clearly the Channels did not like it and today they are with much glee out to savage AAP and destruct its acceptability among the voters pan India. This some of these channels and their news readers, reporters and anchors do with great pleasure for the very reasons Arvind Kejriwal and other spokesmen and leaders of AAP have mentioned in great detail. This has caused considerable annoyance and consternation to the owners editors and some senior reporters of these channels.

These elements in the media owe a debt of gratitude to some political parties in power and their crony capitalist friends. The reasons for this gratitude are now well known. We have to thank Arvind Kejriwal and AAP for it. Who likes to be exposed? Portray AAP and its leaders in bad light is the answer of this paid media. They will continue to report them in bad light with warts and all. Well as AAP may contend , however, fiercely it might counterpoise they will continue to rub it in with half truths and lies that will look as honest reporting. AAP supporters will not buy it. I do believe they will not. Contesting them with truth is what AAP can do best after simply ignoring most of it.