Srinagar:Media is said to be the fourth pillar of democracy. Without it the other threepillars cannot serve democracy properly. With the advent of the pressgovernments across the world were directly accountable to masses on a dailybasis. To add another feather in the cap, Media channels across the world gaveinstant information about the events in the legislature, executive andjudiciary almost as they were happening. However, with the passage of time, theacquisition of middle-sized media channels by big corporate sharks happened.Many commentators at that time advised that it was not good for the health ofmedia as information would now be concentrated in the hands of only a few whohave only profit and power on their mind. In India, the liberalization ofeconomy happened in the early nineties. This led to spawning of a number ofnews channels owned by private parties. The entertainment quotient of thenewsrooms kept on increasing as we saw more and more animated faces swoopingdown at us during prime time shouting across doses of jingoism andsensationalism to the amusement of the masses. People saw it as a respite fromthe monotonous Doordarshan news anchors. Slowly and steadily, the content ofthese news channels, bordering on hyper-nationalism and populism, was acceptedas gospel truth. From past few years, in India media has further deterioratedas crooning, yelling, cat calling, abuse have become the order of the day.Anyone who talks about the constitutional values is called an anti-national. Adefamation campaign is willfully triggered on social media for the news anchorswho try to maintain balance and integrity. For the proverbial “lapdogs” whocroon jingoism, there are rewards and recognition. We hope that some senseprevails on the media channels and the citizens get to watch quality news onTelevision. Otherwise, fourth pillar of democracy i s i n d anger o f l osing its essence.