Sensationalist Indian Media Overplays Its Hand

By Indian Cricket Fever
May 26 2013

The IPL is hugely successful. Stadiums are full, TV screens attract billions of eyeballs, yet the Indian media are calling for the IPL to be scrapped. Luckily saner heads prevailed and nothing of the sort happened. But it does call into question the maturity of the media in the country.

Despite threats to abandon the IPL final, it took place as scheduled and the Mumbai Indians (MI) played the perenially successful (though now legitimately tainted) Chennai Super Kings (CSK) and beat them convincingly in Kolkata to become the 2013 Pepsi IPL Champions. The crowd at this neutral venue was housefull. The IPL must be doing something right. In stark contrast the National Championship between Mumbai and Saurashtra was played in front of nearly non-existent crowds. In fact it seemed the only people watching the match were the teams, their support staff a few half-interested media persons, a couple of selectors and a small contingent of pot bellied policemen and the odd die hard fan via Willow on the internet. And this was the National Championship.

So clearly the IPL is doing something right. Let us stipulate that the sordid details of alleged spot-fixing which have come to light via an investigation of the Delhi Police along with counterparts in Gujarat and Mumbai, and even the betting on matches by CSK chief Gurunathan and his crony Vindoo Dara Singh are true, why is the media so hell bent on discrediting one if India's great success stories? It seems that a responsible media would undoubtedly report on the wrong-doing, even criminal wrong doing of people both inside and outside the IPL, but would not tar and feather the whole enterprise. They would balance the many positives the league has provided, not the least of which is the employment of hundreds of Indian cricketers, and the raising of salaries of thousands of others via the riches it provides the Indian cricket board. Also the number of ancilliary jobs provided by the running of a league that has 40-80 thousand fans showing up at Stadiums accross the country and boosting the economy with their pocket books for two months in a row is not to be sneered at, and even this is only the icing on the cake, which is actually the hundred million or more who watch the matches on TV every night for a period of 6-8 weeks. The economic stimulus of that would raise a lot of boats at all levels of the economic spectrum, from the sweeper who gets hired to clean up after the game, to the photographers who provide pictures for print media, to commentators who are hired to cover the games, to the Corporates who rent out boxes to hob-nob with potential clients or reward past achievements of employees. The IPL stimulates a hell of a lot of legitimate business activity.

Does that mean that nefarious and criminal elements in India and in cahoots with others in places like Dubai and Karachi etc. are not also trying to cash in on the tournament and its phenomenal popularity? Of course, not. They are for sure aware of the popularity of the IPL and therefore are attracted to it. Afterall nobody hears of Dubai Dons betting on Ranji matches.

But just because the IPL is suceptible to falling prey to greed and criminality does it mean that one should throw the baby out with the dirty bathwater? What a responsible media would do would be to present the facts, and not conflate them with mere allegations, hearsay, or worse speculation in a breathless and shrill 24/7 media frenzy to sensationalize the news and demonize the entire enterprise. This in the short term may be useful in that it shines a harsh spot light on wrong doing, but in the long run, when some of the allegations are shown to be false or half-truths the general public will see that the media are not interested so much in the truth but in TRP and ratings and the public rightly will discount them. This in the long term does much more harm. It is simply a case of the media crying wolf too often, because when it does so, in the begining it gets attention, and earns money from advertising, etc, but soon people discount it as source of the truth. One can see signs of this even now, as crowds at the IPL games have hardly diminished after the news coverage of spot fixing, etc. began.

An independent and vigilant media and a free press are the cornerstone of a democracy, and where they see wrong doing, abuse of power, etc. they must speak out freely. But with that freedom comes some responsibility, including the responsibility to filter the truth from mere sensationalism, and to provide larger perspective on the events of the day. That sadly is lacking from the Indian media at this time. In fact by overplaying their hands they often turn off the people who get cynical about the media themselves and stop paying attention. When that happens the real wrong doers are able to escape scot-free and if that happens that will be the real tragedy.

Sensationalist Indian Media Overplays Its Hand

Posted by: Indian Cricket Fever (IP Logged)

Date: 26/05/2013 21:40

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Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2013:06:09:20:39:56 by Birbal.