Media makes me Angry.

I have not written much about newspapers earlier, but today, as I am frustrated for some reason, which is not totally related to newspapers, but also not something which I should share in the open, so I'll write about a common topic for all. All I am trying to do is be productive even with my negative emotions. Please note that I am not an expert in this domain.

I have stopped buying newspapers, because I find them absurd with the news of the rapes and abuses on the front page. There is news that makes us feel bad and nothing more. Because perhaps bad news always catches our attention, they publish it more and more, as if nothing good is happening in this world. I don't know if this would be a good thing to ignore the newspaper, but I don't see any advantage to reading such papers.

According to Gandhi, one must see good, hear good, and speak good, and not do the other way. Newspapers are filled with stories of bad deeds. I think they can do good by observing some good stories too. Maybe they do focus on those good stories, too, but I think they are more focused on the bad part of the world.

All I like about newspapers is the advertisements in the newspaper when they are of any relevance to the common man. Some people advertise for recruitment, and some people advertise just to show their products to the common man. That is the main business of the newspapers, but their business can become good if they can provide something better on it.

I think newspapers need to understand the psychology of the people and they must understand that they have a very big responsibility by selling the information. They must recruit psychologists and they must be aware of the impact of the stories on people's mind.

Recently wife of Shashi Tharoor was found dead in a hotel room in Delhi. If that was a suicide, then I think one of the major reasons behind the suicide was the media. The media put the story of her personal relationship with her husband and another lady reporter from Pakistan, who was in a fight with her, put more spice to the matter as the media would've wanted. 

They put news about someone's personal life, which is not of much relevance to other people. Was there really a relation between Shashi Tharoor and that reporter? Who cares? Only a few people would care about it, and they shouldn't know this from the larger media. 

 Insensitive media publishes it in the open, as if it were in the national interest for everyone to know about their personal life, without even thinking about the life of the people close to the subject,  the pain they would go through after reading it in open media, the humiliation they would feel?  

Don't you think that they should be left alone to live their personal life? How can the media be so cruel? It makes me feel disgusted with the newspapers. I have started to hate them. All I want to say to the media is, 

"Media, Please Leave the personal lives of the celebrities to their own, don't interfere with them, and start publishing something meaningful."

The media is the real criminal in today's world; they are the ones who glamorize crime and criminals. They can do good by covering some good stories. They must put something on their pages that could have inspired the wife of Tharoor to live more instead of committing suicide. 

Update - July 5, 2025

I re-visited this blog post today, and as I read it, I tried to remember the day and the events that prompted me to write this angry post earlier. Which newspaper was I writing about? -  I don't remember, but a decade has gone by, and many newspapers are still mostly the same. 

I read the news even today, but now I have learned to cope with the bad news, and I have to accept the fact that it will not change. Also, I have other options now to read. For example, if I am interested in financial news, I read Business Standard or The Financial Express. Similarly, if I want to read about politics, then it is in almost every general newspaper. I think it is all about setting our priorities to not let someone waste our time with the junk news. Everybody has to learn this in life, and I have learned it now to some degree :).