There is an apocryphal anecdote that sums up the sensationalism that present day media indulges in: ‘The Pope arrives in New York. He is greeted by the paparazzi. One reporter shoves a microphone literally into His Holiness’s mouth and asks” Pope are you going to visit the brothels in New York”? The Pope smiles benignly and answers, “Son, are there brothels in New York”? The next day headlines scream: Pope Asks, “Are there brothels in New York”.

The media needs to be congratulated for stinging Jothikumaran. But they should remember they are no shining angels themselves! The picture is not rosy if one looks at their casual attitude, misplaced priorities, and so on and henceforth. If the media record of last three decades are passionately looked at, there appear a lot many omissions and commissions.

That the media world is just a ‘fair-weather friend’ needs no proof but nevertheless some examples are glaring:

Rajiv Misra: Admired as ‘Flash Gordon’ by a Dutch coach and on whom Barry Dancer heaped praises got injured in the knee, dropped out of reckoning. He was denied top class treatment and slipped into oblivion. Today he is a Travelling Ticket Examiner in the Indian Railways with only the Bacchus for company. Not many tracked him down so as to make it a national news. The media proved that ‘A friend in need is no friend of mine’!

1982 Mir Ranjan Negi: The goal- keeper who, according to the media, had betrayed his country by allowing Pakistan to score in the 1982 Asian finals at Delhi. Whilst his team mates Rajinder Singh, the deep defender (later to coach the Indian team) and Zafar Iqbal, the skipper (served as a selector and is presently also a selector), were let off scot free. Negi was ostracised and underwent mental trauma and agony a la Chetan Sharma.

1998 Ashish Bhallal: The goalkeeper who ensured India won the Asian gold withstanding a nerve-wracking tiebreaker against the South Koreans and never again played for India. Apparently, media could not play it up.

Gerard Rach – Indian Hockey’s first foreign hockey coach whose only credential was his ‘white skin’!

Daily allowance: On a foreign tour the players are given a ‘princely’ daily allowance, which would not get their friend an extra cup of coffee! This issue in particular was not highlighted despite many veterans complaining about it. Must the media have been busy in the sponsor’s marquee!

How many reams of paper were devoted consistently to the above mentioned issues. Well, if the headlines of the cover pages of national dailies on 29th April. 2008 and the electronic media on 28th April 2008 are any indicators, the answer is zero. Since that day snaps of Sreesanth and Harbhajan took the pride of place below the masthead, relegating even the Indian Space Research Organization’s world record of launching ten satellites on a single rocket to a minion space.

Yes, the sting on the IHF has dealt a body blow to the ‘honourable’ mandarins who claimed over the roof top they serve the game. But we will be missing the ‘woods for the trees’ if the media is not going to highlight pressing hockey issues in a manner it deserves.

Otherwise, why should the media ‘crawl’ when asked to ‘bend’ by the BCCI on the IPL issue? The supposed media ‘boycott’ notwithstanding!

It’s the money silly!