By Ranjona Banerji

Copyright mxmindia

In the land of the free and the home of the brave, you cannot say anything that upsets both the elected despot of your land nor the corporate honchos which own you. And thus, in a murky world where media freedom has become a chimera, because free speech is an everchanging entity, a comedian and talk show host loses his job. For poking a little fun at the despot. This comes a couple of months after another comedian and talk show host was told his show will not be renewed – an effective job loss – for making fun of the despot.

In both cases, Stephen Colbert and Jimmy Kimmel, the owner companies of the channel they were employed by, apparently needed some leeway on some deal/merger/corporate claptrap they were undergoing.

In Donald Trump’s first term as President of the United States these talk show hosts provided the maximum pushback against the administration when the legacy media failed to hold up. This time Trump’s taking no chances. As is evident from his various other moves.

The killing of rightwing activist and podcaster Charlie Kirk appears to have deeply upset Americans, from both the left and the right. Tributes poured in for the deceased gentleman with several dubious viewpoints, even from his critics. The fact that he was 31-year-old white American with a lovely white American wife and lovely white American children made his death even more upsetting. That several schoolchildren were killed soon after by the uniquely American phenomenon of school shootings or that the shooter of Charlie Kirk was also white did not upset or anger the same people very much. But he was a husband and a father; and white husbands and fathers are worth a lot more than Palestinian fathers and husbands, for instance. And apparently, more than American schoolchildren and Palestinian children.

Therefore, Kimmel was not correct in commenting on Kirk, and even on President Trump’s response to Kirk’s death which was largely about the White House’s new ballroom being constructed.

Neither Colbert nor Kimmel are journalists. But they often stepped in to critique governments in the way that journalists did not. I often argue with people who defend weak and gutless Indian journalists because they say money rules. My contention remains that you can have courage beyond money, beyond spineless employees and owners. And be willing to pay the price. As Colbert and Kimmel have. As of now, they have not gone mewling back to their owners with apologies.

But even I cannot ignore how gutless money is ruining and will soon destroy democracy across the world.

As an example, one of the founders of the popular American ice-cream brand, Ben and Jerry’s has quit his own brand because the parent company Unilever objected to his pro-Palestine stance. Jerry Greenfield says he was forced to quit by Unilever’s anger over Ben and Jerry’s decision to stop selling its ice-creams in Israeli settlements in the West Bank and Jerusalem. Greenfield’s partner Ben Cohen has stated that he will continue to work within and try and uphold the principles with which he and Greenfield started their company.

I have deliberately used an article by the BBC, since the world’s most respected news broadcaster has been unable to show sufficient courage when reporting on the genocide of Palestinians by Israel. A rare instance when a BBC headline was forced to use the word genocide in this context was when the United Nations Commission of Inquiry concluded that Israel was committing genocide in Gaza.

May such wholesome courage survive!

Meanwhile, my heart is breaking for Uttarakhand and the damage that has affected the state thanks to natural fury and human greed and stupidity.

Amidst everything, the lack of information for consumers of news is appalling.

For many years, I worked with the process of organising a journal, magazines and newspapers as well with the decisions of what news, however much news and prioritising news. For the past week, it is the language media which has got done to the nitty-gritty, and people-related news. For the English media, I see space badly utilised and prioritised. Carpet-bombing of local news, and information of what citizens may have to face in the coming days thanks to the destruction wrought by rain and rivers is what I expected.

What I got is pages of extraneous news of happenings in Uttar Pradesh and the Prime Minister’s birthday.

This is not money. This is bad judgment calls and sloppy journalism.

Ranjona Banerji is a senior journalist and commentator. She writes on MxMIndia on Tuesdays and Fridays. Her views here are personal.