Cricket commentator Harsha Bhogle just reminded us what it truly means to be a journalist.
While a lot of people have expressed their opinion on the Arnab v/s Barkha war that broke out, Harsha Bhogle had the most sane it. First, Arnab demanded ‘strict action’ against ‘pseudo-secular and pro-Pakistan’ journalists on his primetime Newshour debate and later NDTV’s consulting editor Barkha Dutt lashed out at her former colleague’s ‘cowardly hypocrisy’.
In a Facebook post, Barkha Dutt claimed that she was ashamed to be from the same industry as Goswami. She also expressed disgust over sections of media’s silence on Goswami calling them ISI agents. She wrote: “Imagine, a journalist actually exhorts the government to shut down sections of the media, misrepresents them as ISI agents and terror sympathisers, calls for them to be tried and acted against. And our fraternity remains locked into politically correct and timid silence. So he drones on and on about Pro Pakistan Doves without one word on the JK alliance agreement that commits the BJP and PDP to talks with Pakistan and Hurriyat and is silent on Modi’s own Pakistan outreach- neither of which I object to - but since Arnab Goswami measures patriotism by such views why is he so silent on the government? Chamchagiri?”
Reacting to the entire fight, cricket commentator Harsha Bhogle wrote on Facebook:
There was a time when being a journalist, a bit like being a judge, meant that you were bestowed a certain responsibility. People believed in you and that trust had to be worn at all times. But news was competition too and so you needed to stay ahead. You did that by getting news early but you were still truthful, or at least a majority felt the need to be so. Then social media arrived and with Twitter, Facebook but increasingly with Whatsapp, everyone is a journalist but without the responsibility of being one.
And so the onus of sifting between the dignified and the truthful, and the provocative and the untrue, is now no longer with the disseminator of the news but with the receiver. But social media is at least a personal platform. When mass media abdicates its responsibility, when the provider of the news seeks to become the news and therefore needs to act provocatively to attract attention (the very act he/she should be filtering out), we are in dangerous times.
Wonder what messrs Bachchan and Dhoni would have to add after Harsha's neutral view-point.
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
 "Harsha Bhogle")
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
)
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
)
)
)
)
)
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}