Thursday, November 26, 2015

How TOI bullshitted the polls and twisted the headlines with random conclusions

It is really sad to see how the country has overreacted over Aamir Khan's comments in an interview. It is even worse that much of this is propelled by an irresponsible media and journalists who are not qualified enough to be called "Journalists" (salesmen would rather be the right word).

This is what Aamir Khan said, "When I chat with Kiran at home, she says, ‘Should we move out of India?’ That’s a disastrous and big statement for Kiran to make. She fears for her child. She fears what the atmosphere around us will be. She feels scared to open the newspapers every day.”

I fully agree with the opinion expressed in this open letter. It says-

Kiran, Aamir's wife, a mother who is worried about her son’s future and safety said that. Aamir Khan himself finds it a disastrous and big statement for his wife to make. But that’s what the happenings in the country has brought them down to. We are human beings after all. You, me, him, his wife, his kids. We all think about survival. Mr. Khan just had the balls to say it on public media where thousands of citizens are watching him.

But now coming back to what media has reported it as- "Aamir Khan fears rising intolerance, raises hackles" And over the next two days what this has led to is a very hot debate thanks to social media whether India is tolerant or not and even to the extent that some say Aamir must be slapped for voicing his opinions. This I would say is really sad and wasteful debate propelled by an irresponsible media that only cares about increasing its TRP. They don't really care provided they have something to talk about and fuel the debate even further turning a blind eye to the consequences of the words they speak.


Today I saw this article of TOI. Now I can understand that a poll was conducted with a very vague statement. It's highly probable that a vast majority who answered "Agree" would have indeed agreed that India has religious tolerance. There's no mention in the poll statement about Aamir Khan. But the headlines is slightly twisted as: "TOI poll: More than 85% back BJP over Aamir Khan". This is how the debate has been propagated by media and fueled further by social media.


It is sad that it takes just 5 seconds for us to form an opinion and media exploits it every-time by doing what it does best! Giving sensitive headlines and blowing Aamir Khan's statements out of proportion, making everybody take sides while many who voiced their opinion haven't seen the original video of Aamir before forming their opinion. Which ever side u choose is immaterial for media. Media always wins. TRP always increases.