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Journalism of Courage
WASHINGTON, May 13: Theories and stories ranging from the wild to the improbable to the fantastic erupted over the American media as a tidal wave of criticism and condemnation followed India8217;s nuclear tests.
Shallow at the best of times, most US media struggled to put pictures, quotes and faces on a story that was far removed from the staple Middle East crisis and European affairs they are used to. The result: a grossly distorted and exaggerated picture about the Indian nuclear tests and Indian policy.
Not one media outlet spoke of the US8217; 1,000 plus tests or thefact that the Republican dominated US Senate has rejected the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty and refused to ratify it. For that matter, there was not a whisper about the latest THAAD missile test conducted by the US, a few hours after India8217;s nuclear test. The 15 billion project, one of Washington8217;s most expensive and seen by many as a waste of money, saw the fifth consecutive test end in failure.
With 24 hours of newstime to fill, cable networks went berserk with ill-informed commentary and frivolous fillers. The upstart MSNBC carried its news stories with a caption provocatively titled India8217;s Bomb Threat.8217; 8220;It8217;s pathetic. Most of the time these guys have no idea what they are talking about. I guess they have to cater to the lowest common denominator and make things sound exciting to the lay public,8221; one Indian official said, sounding fairly helpless before a tide of adverse and ill-informed journalistic opinion passed off as news. Little informed debate was possible amid what one Indian journalistdescribed as an 8220;avalanche of bullshit.8221; The few reasoned critique were lost in the din of gabfests masquerading as discourse. There were few soundbites from India and Indian analysts in the US got barely a look-in.
