INDIAN JOURNALISTS UNION (IJU), Regd.Off. F-29, Shankar Market, Connaught Circus, New Delhi- 110001. Address for Correspondence: Office of the Secretary General, IJU, Media Centre, 7/411(1) Fine Arts Society Building, Tharekkad, Palakkad – 678001, Kerala State
B.R. Prajapati G. Prabhakaran
President Secretary General 9898571947 9447078870
Email : gujaratjournal@gmail.com Ex-Member, Press Council of India Website:https://theiju.com pkdprabha@gmail.com
The IJU salutes the American media for standing up against the media bash and falsehood spread by the outgoing U.S President Donald Trump during the Presidential election and even earlier.
Three major networks — ABC, CBS and NBC — pulled away from Trump’s rambling press conference questioning the integrity of the election. CNN and Fox ran captions under his speech and rebutted his claims. CNBC interrupted the feed to clarify that his allegations about election interference, fake polls and a red wave lacked even “a scintilla of evidence”. MSNBC, with its liberal viewership, had cut away from Trump’s press conferences even earlier in the week.
In these wised-up times when we are sceptical about a single truth, the US media still came around to calling a lie a lie. But when Trump declared “fake news media” an “enemy of the people” and an “opposition party” in 2018, the media came together to resist the discrediting. That August, 300 newspapers across the US coordinated their response in hundreds of editorials reminding citizens of the stakes in a free press.
In India, the media has been less than aggressive in calling out official claims that fly in the face of facts. And finally refusing to be spun around by disinformation, the US media is learning to keep its head and do its job.
So U.S developments are big lessons for Indian media barons who compromise on freedom of press, its credibility and integrity by siding with the ruling elite for their economic and vested interests.
B.R. Prajapati, President & G. Prabhakaran, Secretary General, IJU, New Delhi. November 08, 2020.
