Since its publication in 1996, the title of the journalist P.Sainath‘s book Everybody loves a good drought has been ready fallback for sub-editors stuck for a headline. (A lot like the movie title The Curious Case of Benjamin Button.)
#Coronavirus is as good a time as any to doff the mask to Sainath’s book which, strangely, emerged from a fellowship provided by The Times of India before it formally entered the “advertising business”.
As the full impact of COVID becomes clear with the continuing lockdown, everybody in the media, it seems, loves a good sop from the government.
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Newspaper owners love a good government sop.
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TV Broadcasters love a good government sop.
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FM radio operators love a good government sop.
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Advertising agencies love a good government sop.
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Outdoor media love a good government sop.
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i.e. Everybody in the media loves a good sop from the government, as long as it is not struggling farmers, or out of work labourers, or….
Let the record show India is 142nd on the World Press Freedom index, having fallen every year since the dawn of civilisation in 2014.
Screenshots: courstey The Times of India; The Economic Times
IJR 