Potentials and failings of the Media
Your beloved ‘Vartha Bharati’ has completed 15 years of its journey today, and has entered the 16th year. On this joyous occasion,let us do some introspection on the media.
The end consumers of Media in any society are its people. But if these consumers set out to search for themselves in the media they use, they’d be rather disappointed because none of the Media platforms either recognise their existence or care about their interests or preferences. The policies of the Media houses, their priorities and their tone and tenor are all enigma to the common man. Many of them in course of time get used to this indifference of the Media or gradually learn to reset their own expectations. But the more sensitive among them keep wondering everyday as to why their media does not ever represent them.
The principal function of most of the Media houses today is to convert their consumers into the compulsive consumers of hundreds of other products in the market. Most of the consumers of the Media fail to notice for a long time that they are the direct targets and victims of this conspiracy of the Media.
The masses fail to comprehend how the media turns them addicts of goods and services that they can in fact comfortably live without. When they can afford to buy a bicycle, media lures them into buying a motorbike or a car on loan. By the time people realize what has gone wrong, they would have reached a point of no return. Most of the media do not stop here. They also keep people in dark ignorance about the issues that really matter to them. And all this is done so gently and with such precise planning that people would hardly realize something of this nature is even happening right under their nose.
India does not exist in Kolkata or Mumbai. The country breathes in its 7 lakh villages, according to Mahatma Gandhi. But if you look for those villages or people in the media, it’s hard to find. The number of our villages has come down to 6.5 lakhs. But yet, most of the 70% of our people live in villages. Majority of them seriously suffer from poverty and insecurity. However, the Consumers of most of our Mainstream Media are not likely to be aware of their plight. So is the story of our farmers, peasants and our working class.
On an average, about 45 farmers commit suicide every day in our country. Over 3 lakh peasants have resorted to suicide between 1995 and 2015, But the media has hardly mourned their death just because no one placed an ad of obituary on their behalf. Now there are about 50 crore labors in the Unorganised sector. There are lakhs of unemployed, homeless and destitutes, those suffering from malnutrition – unfortunately none of them are of any relevance to our media houses.
Saddest part is, the media not only refuses to acknowledge the presence of people of this categories, and their travails. Media often strives to focus people’s attention stays on irrelevant and idiotic statements made by politicians, or really frivolous issues such as cattle, cow, temple, mandir, private lives of cinema actors, luxury cars, expensive hotels so on and so forth.
As a result of this, people wouldn’t even notice serious matters that affect their lives such as the conspiracy of the ruling party or the dangerous schemes plans being hatched by capitalists close to power circles. No discussions or debates ever happen on the topics that matter to people that have been compromised. When paths to discussion are closed, solutions can never come by. And hence, the issues remain undercover much to the satisfaction of the perpetrators.
In reality, no problems are without solution. There are enough resources to help find solutions as well. But, we do have a problem with employing the resources, and prioritizing the task of finding solution. We may never be able to arrive at a point of resolution so long as the all-powerful people are reduced to mere puppets who are managed by mega industrialists. Media can change the way things work here by bridging the gap between what needs doing and the resources available, based on priority. With this, if media can help the debate remain alive to find better solutions, this would be the biggest help the most important pillar of democracy would be doing to the people of the country.
Today when Vartha Bharati enters its 16th year, we felt we must take stock of hits and misses of the media. Our Vartha Bharati was started amidst major financial challenges, but today has gathered a good number of readers across the spectrum. Even when value-based journalism is beginning to be a thing of past, Vartha Bharati has strived to stick to its ground and not fall into the trap of irresponsible value-less journalism. As a result of this, Vartha Bharathi has always believed in dissemination of truth or ‘truth everywhere’ as its motto. For the paper to remain an epitome of people’s aspirations, we need your whole hearted and proactive support.
Let the Truth be known. If you read VB and like VB, please be a VB Supporter and Help us deliver the Truth to one and all.
Joe Biden pardons Fauci, Milley to guard against potential 'revenge' by Trump
Washington, Jan 20 (AP): President Joe Biden on Monday pardoned Dr Anthony Fauci, retired Gen Mark Milley and members of the House committee that investigated the Jan 6 attack on the Capitol, using the extraordinary powers of his office in his final hours to guard against potential “revenge” by the incoming Trump administration.
The decision by Biden comes after Donald Trump warned of an enemies list filled with those who have crossed him politically or sought to hold him accountable for his attempt to overturn his 2020 election loss and his role in the storming of the US Capitol on Jan 6, 2021.
Trump has selected Cabinet nominees who backed his election lies and who have pledged to punish those involved in efforts to investigate him.
“The issuance of these pardons should not be mistaken as an acknowledgment that any individual engaged in any wrongdoing, nor should acceptance be misconstrued as an admission of guilt for any offence,” Biden said in a statement. “Our nation owes these public servants a debt of gratitude for their tireless commitment to our country.”
The pardons, announced with just hours left in his presidency, have been the subject of heated debate for months at the highest levels of the White House. It's customary for a president to grant clemency at the end of his term, but those acts of mercy are usually offered to Americans who have been convicted of crimes.
Biden has used the power in the broadest and most untested way possible: to pardon those who have not even been investigated yet. The decision lays the groundwork for an even more expansive use of pardons by Trump and future presidents.
While the Supreme Court last year ruled that the president enjoys broad immunity from prosecution for what could be considered official acts, the president's aides and allies enjoy no such shield.
There are fears that Trump or future presidents could use the promise of a blanket pardon to encourage allies to take actions they might otherwise resist for fear of running afoul of the law.
Trump, who takes office at noon, has promised to, in his first moments as president, pardon many of those involved in the violent and bloody Jan 6, 2021, attack, which injured roughly 140 law enforcement officers.
It's unclear whether those pardoned by Biden would need to apply for the clemency or even accept the offer at all. Any acceptance could be seen as a tacit admission of guilt or wrongdoing, validating years of attacks by Trump and his supporters, even though those who have been pardoned have not been formally accused of any crimes.
“These are exceptional circumstances, and I cannot in good conscience do nothing,” Biden said, adding that “Even when individuals have done nothing wrong — and in fact have done the right thing — and will ultimately be exonerated, the mere fact of being investigated or prosecuted can irreparably damage reputations and finances.”
Fauci was director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases at the National Institutes of Health for nearly 40 years, including during Trump's term in office and later served as Biden's chief medical adviser until his retirement in 2022.
He helped coordinate the nation's response to the COVID-19 pandemic and raised Trump's ire when he resisted the Trump's untested public health notions.
Fauci has since become a target of intense hatred and vitriol from people on the right, who blame him for mask mandates and other policies they believe infringed on their rights, even as hundreds of thousands of people were dying.
Mark Milley is the former chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. He later called Trump a fascist and detailed Trump's conduct around the deadly Jan 6, 2021, insurrection. He said he was grateful to Biden for a pardon so he no longer has to worry about “retribution”.
Biden also extended pardons to members and staff of the Jan 6 committee that investigated the attack, as well as the US Capitol and DC Metropolitan police officers who testified before the committee about their experiences that day, overrun by an angry, violent mob of Trump supporters.
The committee spent 18 months investigating Trump and the violent insurrection on Jan 6, 2021. It was lead by US Rep Bennie Thompson and Republican Liz Cheney, who later pledged to vote for Democrat Kamala Harris and campaigned with her.
The committee's final report found that Donald Trump criminally engaged in a “multi-part conspiracy” to overturn the lawful results of the 2020 presidential election and failed to act to stop his supporters from attacking the Capitol.
“Rather than accept accountability, those who perpetrated the January 6th attack have taken every opportunity to undermine and intimidate those who participated in the Select Committee in an attempt to rewrite history, erase the stain of January 6th for partisan gain, and seek revenge, including by threatening criminal prosecutions,” Biden said.
Biden's statement did not list the scores of members and staff by name.
“These public servants have served our nation with honour and distinction and do not deserve to be the targets of unjustified and politically motivated prosecutions,” Biden.
Biden, an institutionalist, has promised a smooth transition to the next administration, inviting Trump to the White House and saying that the nation will be OK, even as he warned during his farewell address of a growing oligarchy. He has spent years warning that Trump's ascension to the presidency again would be a threat to democracy. His decision to break with political norms with the preemptive pardons was brought on by those concerns.
Biden has set the presidential record for most individual pardons and commutations issued. He announced on Friday he would commuting the sentences of almost 2,500 people convicted of nonviolent drug offences. He previously announced he was commuting the sentences of 37 of the 40 people on federal death row, converting their punishments to life imprisonment just weeks before Trump, an outspoken proponent of expanding capital punishment, takes office.
In his first term, Trump presided over an unprecedented spate of executions, 13, in a protracted timeline during the coronavirus pandemic.
Biden is not the first to consider such preemptive pardons — Trump aides considered them for him and his supporters involved in his failed efforts to overturn the 2020 presidential election that culminated in the violent riot at the Capitol on Jan 6, 2021. But Trump's pardons never materialised before he left office four years ago.
Gerald Ford granted a “full, free, and absolute pardon” in 1974 to his predecessor, Richard Nixon, over the Watergate scandal. He believed a potential trial would “cause prolonged and divisive debate over the propriety of exposing to further punishment and degradation a man who has already paid the unprecedented penalty of relinquishing the highest elective office of the United States,” as written in the pardon proclamation.
