USA – WHAT A COUNTRY?! ANYONE CAN LAUNCH A TIRADE, HOWEVER NONSENSICAL, AGAINST THE PRESIDENT!! IS THIS A DEMOCRACY WORTH EMULATING?

What is currently happening in US media world, especially with respect to actions of one cable TV channel, is utterly flabbergasting! The anchors, talk show hosts of the TV channel in question have been highly strident in their criticism of President Obama from the time he assumed office. But of late in the context of proposed health care reform this channel is seen to have gone ballistic in their antagonism to Democrats and President Obama in particular.

Watching this TV channel the question that comes to the mind of any one who is rational and sane minded: Is this the type of democratic practice any country should aspire to have? Is this the ideal model of right to ‘free speech’? If an individual or corporate body or an organisation has enough money, can that individual or corporate body or an organisation launch a sustained campaign based on any nonsensical, stupid premise/argument against an individual – an individual who happens to be the President of USA?!

What is the limit to which right to free speech can be stretched in a democracy? In other democracies in the world – be they in Western world or in Asia or Latin America – the opposition parties are known to oppose any proposed change in policy by arranging public rallies. Opposition parties are also known to attack the government, the Prime Minister or minister(s) in and outside the Parliament (or Senate et al), but the verbal attacks are generally more based on reasoning – whether rational or flimsy – related to the policy in question (sometimes it gets physical too inside the lawmakers chamber).

But the main point to note is that the attacks and responses mostly take place between the government and the opposition – rarely an outside organization, and that too a media channel, is roped in that fight in such a blatant and brazen manner. In US at the moment the TV channel referred to at the beginning of the blog is carrying out a sustained campaign against the president by name, and all kinds of information (or disinformation) is being disseminated.

A random sampling of information (or disinformation) regarding President Obama thrown at public by the said American cable channel include following (this is by no means a exhaustive listing):

· Mischievously highlighting that Obama’s middle name is Hussein;
· He may not be born in USA, hence is not eligible to be president (as per US law);
· He is a socialist (sometimes he is branded as quasi-communist);
· Sometimes he has been compared to being a fascist;
· His proposed health care reform involves killing of elderly people…etc etc

This kind of sustained campaign against a Prime Minister or President through blatant and partisan use of TV channel, and worse, based on apparently irrational/whimsical arguments, is unheard of in any other democracy. Thank goodness, the people of the other democracies in the West and other parts of the world don’t get to see the aforesaid circus on a daily basis and in a detailed manner (for whatever reasons). If they did, they would have:

· Rolled in laughter listening to the whimsical/irrational points made by that channel;
· Wondered how intellectually challenged and mentally half grown people get to speak on TV on a regular basis;
· Developed a hateful opinion of American democracy;
· Added another reason to their list for disliking US, and strengthened their disdain for Americanism.

But potentially the worst implication could be that some folks in the other democracies might get ideas of how one could run the head of the government – prime minister or the president – down in the dirty game of politicking; how electronic media can be used (or misused) to manipulate public opinion to any extreme! This is indeed a frightening prospect.

The potentially catastrophic aspect of use (or misuse) of electronic media is that in a country of relatively large population (US population around 340 million) there are always people who are vulnerable and susceptible to manipulation – who could potentially get driven to extremes. In a large population this segment (of vulnerable people) can be fairly big.

And, when people belonging to this segment, even a handful, get driven to extremes they could potentially get morphed in to radical elements and create havoc in society. Fanatic religious radicalism is one such example of people driven to extremes though in this case the radicalism is fed and fomented through religious channels, again, through use of electronic means.

It will be interesting to see if and at what point the current ongoing character assassination – it will not be unfair to call it such – of the American leadership will stop. If it continues like this, in medium and long term future the socio-politico repercussions for the people of USA could be potentially highly toxic and dangerous. One hopes the saner elements in the US will pause to ponder on what is going on and stop the slide before a serious damage takes place to its polity!!