Ideological Cronyism Analysis

Ideological cronyism- Crony Journalism has become a movement of the elite, who are out of touch with reality taking the mainstream media networks in the grip. The private media networks have aligned themselves to be the drummer boys of the socialist and even extreme leftist ideas. Instead of providing citizens with unbiased and unadulterated news, the mainstream media keeps spouting politically correct banalities and falsehoods with utmost expertise. When a media espouses ideas aligned to a particular mindset and ideology, there can be distortion in the presentation of news. Most media houses in India have aligned themselves to an affiliation of a political party which its endangering and detrimental for the dissemination of balanced news.

The Lokmat group of Congress MP Vijay Darda and his brother Rajendra, owns a widely circulated Marathi daily. They were under scanner for obtaining coal mining blocks using their media connections, which eventually they sold at a premium. The practice of giant companies investing into media is age old which led Jawaharlal Nehru, during the time of independence to comment on media, as the jute press and steel press. Jute press as Birlas who owned the Hindustan Times, were into jute manufacturing and steel press as Tata steel had a stake in the Statesman. The Reliance group has lent money to the Network 18 group to fund its acquisition of Eenadu channels, while Kumaramangalam Birla picked up a stake in India Today’s Living Media group. Much before emergency Indira Gandhi wanted to delink media from the big business houses, fearing that the emergence of such a trend will dilute the mission of the media. Her fears then; have taken the shape of cronyism. Thus during the emergency when there was a huge uproar against the decision to censor the press , on one hand sixty eight journalists gathered to protest at the Press Club of India in New Delhi, the other side of the story was that twenty three journalists including editors met Prime Minister Indira Gandhi and supported her decision. This was just the beginning wherein journalists aligned themselves with the then government’s wishes to exhibit their allegiance and secure their job. According to Rajiv Shukla, journalist turned politician & chairman of IPL (Indian Premiere League); his wife who owns BAG films, which operates News 24 channel, media is no longer a holy cow. He feels that although media houses have to make profits’ but then they must not use their clout to further their other business interests. In this regard, in a debate on cronyism, he cited an incident