Two channels, two realities

On paper, the campaigning for Monday’s polls ended on Saturday. In reality, however, the opaque methods of surrogate advertising were employed by the channel. For instance, after campaigning was officially over, pictures of Karunanidhi’s arrest at the hands of the Jayalalithaa government in June 2001, were shown by the channel — as indeed other incidents of police violence. Short of stating that voters should not opt for a party as tyrannical as the AIADMK, this channel did all it could to convey that message.

On election day it was clear that each channel would talk about their respective parties coming to power. Nobody expected their analysis to be objective. Sure enough, their respective commentators were chosen with great care — and their biases were very apparent. As results started pouring in, it was soon made very clear that one had to rely on the national channels to get the real picture. Both Sun TV and Jaya TV were constantly showing their respective parties as doing much better than was the actual case. Both channels projected trends which were quite detached from reality. Sun TV claimed at one stage that the DMK was winning by more than a hundred seats when the other channels indicated that it had a lead of 70 seats. When the results were finally out, and it was clear that J. Jayalalithaa’s party, the AIADMK, had comprehensively lost, Jaya TV did not reveal the full news and later stopped reporting on the elections all together!

Most media organisations have their biases, but at least they make some attempt to appear neutral. The blatant partiality of both Sun TV and Jaya TV crossed all limits. One can well ask why the Election Commission chose not to intervene because this coverage was clearly an affront to the best traditions of Indian democracy.