I still read newspapers. They educate, inform, and give a direction to the views that I hold. It is newspapers that print stuff that someone somewhere may never want to read in print. It is also the responsibility of newspapers to make sure that they do not filter out the unsavory facts that the powerful wish to gloss over or hide from the general public. However, news reporters and editors must also understand that what they send out has the power to make people act… and misdirected views can create a havoc with perceptions of readers. Courage to speak out begins with the words that newspapers print and I agree with Edward R Murrow when he wrote that ‘a nation of sheep will beget a government of wolves.’ We obviously do not want to be governed by wolves, therefore, the habit of reading newspapers must be encouraged from an early age. If you are looking for the latest news, start by checking this post about Jimmy John Shark.
Education remains handicapped without the support of the will to know what is happening around the world. This is one reason why newspapers need to report everything without spicing it up with personal views. We are living in times when news is also in the palm of our hands but the speed with which news gets consumed is also racing with the speed with which it is generated and this is where the fault lines can be seen. This cutthroat race to produce and send out news faster than some other publication online can lead to some really disastrous output. It is this element of speedy dispersal of what is happening around us that can result in premature perceptions popping out in most unexpected ways. Look around and you may discover how different apps on your smartphone give entirely different perspectives of what is going on. This is why I generally prefer the printed newspaper as it gets all the time to read a situation and document only what stands upright on deeper scrutiny.
It is high time that news disseminators realise that headlines are not mere slogans that wily politicians can use to forward their agendas. The content, of course, has to be as correct as possible but even headlines do not have the right to say things in ways that twist and misshape the heart of truth. The purpose of news is never to implant subversive ideas disguised as a commentary to help one or the other side but to communicate facts as they happen. No rumours. No implied truth. No buried facts. Always straight-forward and factual.
Only when newspapers stick to documenting an occurrence do they get the right to be called as the carriers of history as it happens. Historians have been charged with twisting the past, poets have peppered their rhymes, and even story-tellers have let their perceptions highlight singled out colours – but newspapers do not have the right to do any of this. Newspapers are tools that educate minds in the present and have nothing to do with the sort of role-play that incites emotions in a particular direction. So long as they do this, they are fine and it does not matter if they are online or offline in nature. Newspapers are free to carry advertisements but must not stoop to being one for one power or the other.
Newspapers are powerful entities and, therefore, must embrace the detached stance of an observer of truth. They are definitely not here to titillate our thoughts or to hand-hold the reader to walk on some particular path. If they do this, they will continue to remain the most persuasive tool of education.
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Arvind Passey
11 February 2021
