Michael Rezendes: The media needs to scrutinise the Modi government'

Michael RezendesOn a windy January afternoon Mark Rezendes a reporter from The Boston Globes Spotlight team arrived in Jaipur ahead of an annual literature festival At his session he said something that he hopes should become the thrust of the medias role in the 2019s general elections The fundamental point of doing journalism is to question authority If you dont recognise who the Pulitzer prize winner is he was played famously by actor Mark Ruffalo in the critically acclaimed 2015 film Spotlight which depicts how the Globes Spotlight team investigated systematic child abuse by Catholic priests in the Boston area and the coverup behind the crimesAs he spoke to us later he reiterated the same notion I think that President Trumps antimedia rhetoric is different in the US than it is in countries like India and Turkey Reporters within the US work with the US Constitution and with the protection of the first amendment Trump has inspired a golden age of reporting for us But his rhetoric has a much more pernicious effect abroad wherein government leaders feel like it is open season on reporters and that they can put pressure on them or worse throw them into prisonAt a time when media persons are being pitted against each other depending on which side of the political spectrum their allegiances lie on Rezendes believes that the press should stand together Ideally the role of the Indian press should be to scrutinize the Modi government and to report on his accomplishments as well as his shortcomings he said In the next year the news media should take an honest cold look at what the government had promised to deliver and how much has it delivered What have they failed to deliver on I was a political reporter for a long time what I used to do is create a scorecard that would show how much a candidate has delivered and how far he has failed to deliver before he ran for reelectionThe movie Spotlight shows Marty Baron the newly appointed editor of The Boston Globe arriving from Florida and on his first day on the job questioning the Geoghan case in which a priest had repeatedly sexually abused numerous children Martys outsider status the rest of the Spotlight team was from inandaround Boston but Marty had just come in from Florida was absolutely key I dont think we would have chased the story if it wasnt for him said RezendesHe was coming from a part of Florida which has the best open records law in the country so when he came to The Globe on his first day of work and saw that there was a lawsuit that had been filed against the Catholic church and that a judge had impounded the records that would have normally been public it just didnt add up Marty didnt have a grudge against the church this wasnt an ideological decision for him It just didnt make any sense to him and it wasnt good journalism to allow this to happen he addedBut Rezendess favourite part of the film is something else The other thing I really like about the movie is that it reflects our imperfections It shows us failing at getting the story thrice getting doors slammed in our faces and losing our temper its all very humanCatch up on all the latest Mumbai news current affairs from Mumbai local news crime news and breaking headlines hereDownload the new midday Android and iOS apps to get updates on all the latest and trending stories on the go