Post the sudden demise of Bollywood actor, Sushant Singh Rajput, entire India was shocked and poured out their condolences for Sushant’s family over the social media. As depression was cited as the primary reason for Sushant committing suicide, netizens were engaged in sharing stories of mental health issues and supporting each other. Amidst a gloomy environment, suddenly some celebrities opened up in public and alleged: “Bollywood Mafias” of killing Sushant. As the whole internet was divided into groups over what to believe and what not, one thing that remained common for everyone was that fact that EVERYONE wanted to know the truth.
This emotion of the public was utilized by some news media and they soon turned a tragic death into a media circus and used it for propaganda. These news channels along with some propagandist celebs took events to a whole new and shameful level of journalism. Let’s have a look-
Highly unprincipled media coverage- Back in June, just a few hours after the news of Sushant’s tragic demise, news reporters reached Sushant’s home in Patna and pressed his family about the incident. It’s obvious that the death of Sushant would have shaken his family the most, but in the quest of getting the first byte, news journalists shamelessly started disturbing them and rightly faced public outrage on social media as people were disgusted at the lack of empathy and compassion.
CNN stooped even lower- Titling one of their media broadcasts as “#WhoKilledSushant- Love, Sex, Dhoka: Sushant death probe gets murkier”, it was clear that Indian media thought of nothing but spicing up a shocking demise for some TRP and attracting an audience for some 15 minutes long broadcast. CNN, post this tweet, received their equal share of well deserved social media outrage.
Republic TV Reports by Arnab- Taking one step forward, Republic TV actually publicized Sushant’s bank statements and claimed of foul play. This broadcast was indicative that how news channels can twist events in a ruthless quest for TRP, in the process, disregarding all principles of decency and privacy.
AajTak aired a Black Magic segment- Simply keeping sensationalizing the death of Sushant, AajTak aired a broadcast where they openly accused the late actor’s girlfriend Rhea Chakraborty of performing black magic on Sushant! This is not just insensitive but highly bizarre and illegal according to the Indian Penal Code.
Leaked video footage of Sushant’s forensic test- Bringing the unimaginable to reality, Times Now actually leaked video footage of Sushant Singh Rajput’s forensic test being done where an officer was seen talking about the investigation. This also led to a huge controversy.
From Nepotism to Foul play- Since Sushant’s death, every angle- from Nepotism to foul play- was brought up by news media and subject to debate and discussions. This lack of empathy clearly didn’t spare Sushant’s family, the time to grieve.
Instead of privacy in the investigation, Sushant’s death has become a publicity stunt and practically all leading news channels being involved in this, leaves us questioning the quality of journalism whom we trust for news.
