In the cynical times that we live in, rumors of an MP or an MLA paying money to a newspaper or a television channel to elicit favorable news coverage might perhaps raise no more than an eyebrow. One may possibly progress to a shrug of the shoulder when one hears a journalist saying that his colleague might have succumbed to pressures from the “marketing” department and filed a soft interview with a politician “ 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 apologized. They even returned the money taken from my rival to publish news items against me. " - Haryana chief minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda "Every Single News Paper was on sale in my constituency and I was told to pay up for publicity" -Yogi AdityaNath BJP MP A news channel called me, offering to cover "Rahul Gandhi's visit to my constituency-a live telecast for one and half hour---if I paid 2.5 Lakh " - Sandeep Dikshit, Congress MP , East Delhi For instance, when BJP MP Lalji Tandon found zero mention of his campaign in the keenly-watched Lucknow seat in the “largest-circulated language daily in the world”, all he had to do was to put a call and seek the reason why. Simple, he was told, he had to pay up. Says Tandon, “It was disappointing to note that a paper whose success is partly attributed to us (the BJP) could be actually speaking the language of money to me.” Tandon, who went on to win subsequently, swears that he didn’t pay for coverage, though his BSP rival did. source : http://www.outlookindia.com/article.aspx?263242
Indian Media On sale Indian media is surely for sale, there are no doubts about that, but the point of concern is that who is empowering them to behave this way. If politician are not using them and other governing celebrities are not the ones that are directing them, then it means that media is playing a smart role. They are misguiding everyone and mending money for themselves.
it is sad to know whats running behind the minds of indian media. paid news has become an important means of making money for these news channels. it is time that people realise this and abhor such news channels. media should take responsibility of showing some good and rational news which is factual.
media has got an important role to play in our society. people unconsciously believe unto what is given by media, and under such circumstances, it is really bad that media is involved in activities such as paid news. it should play just and fair role in society and should not support evil minds with selfish motives and go after money.
