Vijay Mallya & Maria Sharapova: Media is only targeting them as they fetch TRPs

Two individuals are under the scanner currently. One is India's businessman Vijay Mallya, a major corporate defaulter who has left India after failing to pay back a whopping loan amount of Rs 900 crore. The other is Maria Sharapova, who has been provisionally suspended by the International Tennis Federation for failing the dope test.

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Sharapova not the only athlete to fail dope test" title="Sharapova not the only athlete to fail dope test" />Sharapova not the only athlete to fail dope test

While the political establishment, banks, legal agencies and media have gone after Mallya once the crisis snowballed, the media and purists slammed Sharapova for taking Meldonium which has been banned only this year. But the fact is neither Mallya nor Sharapova is only at fault.

Why just target two individuals while there are more people accused of the same offence?

There are more and even bigger defaulters than Mallya and athletes with even bigger feats than Sharapova who have been found taking the same substance. But we hardly know those names, do we?

Media shames only the famous faces to keep fetching the viewership; is that journalism?

It is the media's strategy to shame those who have a popular face so that it can keep generating the TRPs. But by just targetting individuals' stature and glamour, the media is not doing justice to its actual responsibility of digging up the details about the problem.

The problem of bad loans in the Indian banking system or doping in tennis is more structural and not individual-centric. But those serious details about the root of the problem may not make the consumers of news excited. Hence, the media puts all the focus on factors like glamour (in case of Sharapova) and stature and political blame game (in case of Mallya).

It is not conincidence that Mallya and Sharapova took on the media

True that both Mallya and Sharapova didn't bother about the impending crisis. The former perhaps was busy with his flamboyance while the latter chose to be ignorant. But that apart, these two individuals have not done so big a crime that they will be put on media trial 24X7. It is not without a reason that both Mallya and Sharapova have taken on the media for their coverage of the issue.

They have every reason to feel victimised. Let the concerned agencies take care of their respective cases. The media simply has no business in conducting its never-ending trial to keep its TRP business running.

We need to raise relevant questions about the problems and not use up the celebrity factor to help our own commercial interests.