Why TV News Cannot Tell the Truth
- Madhukar Dama
- 12 hours ago
- 7 min read
Owned by the Billionaires & Watched by the Fools
SUMMARY : TV news in India cannot tell the truth because it is controlled by powerful business owners, political allies, and advertisers who shape what gets shown and what gets hidden. Instead of informing people, channels focus on noise, conflict, and emotional drama to boost profits and protect their interests. Real issues like farmer struggles, poor healthcare, and corruption are ignored, while viewers are kept distracted and divided. Most anchors are performers, not reporters, and almost every major channel is owned by a corporate or political group, making real journalism nearly impossible.
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1. TV News Runs on Ads, Not Truth
TV news does not earn from you watching truth.
It earns when companies pay for ads.
Who gives the ads?
Medicine companies
Food companies
Mobile networks
Big builders
Political parties
Can news channels speak against them? Never.
News becomes a business of silence.
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2. They Want You to Keep Watching, Not Wake Up
Truth is short and powerful.
But they want you glued to the screen for hours.
So they show:
Loud debates
Angry voices
Fake urgency
Same news repeated in different ways
You keep watching. They keep earning.
Truth is not their goal. Addiction is.
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3. They Cannot Anger the Government
TV channels need:
Government ads
License approval
Protection from raids
Easy access to ministers
So they avoid:
Criticising bad laws
Showing farmer pain
Asking hard questions
Showing police violence
They fear losing favour.
So, they smile and lie.
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4. Too Many Filters Kill the Truth
A news story passes through:
Reporter
Editor
Legal team
Channel head
Owner
Political boss
By the time it comes on TV — it's no longer real.
It’s a polished lie wearing a tie.
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5. They Sell Conflict, Not Clarity
TV news survives by making people fight:
Hindu vs Muslim
Modi vs Rahul
City vs Village
Rich vs Poor
Men vs Women
If people stay calm and united, the drama ends.
And with drama gone, their business dies.
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6. Real Problems Are ‘Not Newsworthy’
They ignore:
Water shortage
School dropouts
Junk food addiction
Medical side effects
Farmer suicides
Mental health
Instead, they show:
Actor’s wedding
Politician’s fight
Cricket gossip
Loud “special reports” with no facts
Truth is too simple. Gossip sells better.
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7. Most Anchors Are Not Journalists
They are TV performers.
Dressed in ₹50,000 suits
Shouting without listening
Smiling while lying
Never visiting a poor man’s house
They don’t report your story.
They perform someone else's script.
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8. They Are Afraid of a Thinking Public
If people start thinking, they may:
Question doctors
Stop buying junk food
Learn their rights
Demand better schools
Grow their own food
But TV news doesn’t want thinkers.
They want scared and confused viewers.
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🔍 Who Really Owns These News Channels?
Let’s now ask:
If news is controlled, who controls it?
Here are India’s top news channels and who owns them:
🧩 Who Owns These News Channels?
Let us now look at who actually owns the big news channels in India. This will help you understand why they cannot tell the full truth.
Republic TV and Republic Bharat were started by Arnab Goswami, but the big money came from Rajeev Chandrasekhar, a minister from the ruling BJP. So, the channel mostly praises the government and attacks critics.
Times Now and Mirror Now are part of the Times Group, owned by the Jain family. They focus more on drama and noise than real ground reporting. They also stay safe when it comes to business and government.
Aaj Tak and India Today are run by the India Today Group, owned by Aroon Purie and family. Earlier they were more neutral, but now they also avoid upsetting powerful people too much.
Zee News is owned by Subhash Chandra, who once sat in the Rajya Sabha with BJP support. His channel strongly backs the government and shows very nationalist, emotional stories.
NDTV, once known for questioning the system, is now owned by the Adani Group. After the takeover, the channel’s tone changed. It now speaks less about corporate wrongdoings.
News18, CNN-News18, and CNBC-TV18 are all owned by Reliance, through the Network18 group. That means Mukesh Ambani, one of the richest men in the world, controls what these channels can or cannot show.
ABP News, ABP Ananda, and ABP Majha belong to the ABP Group. They focus more on state-level news, and their tone changes depending on the region.
TV9 Bharatvarsh, and other TV9 channels in different states, are backed by My Home Group, a real estate and cement company from Telangana. Their content also shifts according to who is in power.
Sudarshan News is openly run by Suresh Chavhanke, who supports strong Hindutva ideology. His shows often target minorities and promote hate.
DD News is not private. It is run by the Government of India. So, it only shows what the ruling party wants people to see.
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These are not just news channels.
They are loudspeakers for their owners — who are either:
Businessmen
Politicians
Party backers
Government departments
If these are the owners, then can the channel ever show:
A scam by the rich?
A failed policy?
A police mistake?
A harmful medicine?
No. They will either stay silent, twist the story, or blame someone else.
That is why the truth never gets airtime.
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🧱 What Does This Mean?
If Ambani owns News18 and Adani owns NDTV,
will they ever expose:
Corporate scams?
Land grabbing?
Pollution by factories?
Labour exploitation?
No.
Because you don’t bite the hand that feeds you.
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🧪 Real Examples
After Adani took over NDTV, the channel became softer on government issues.
Republic TV was launched with investment from a BJP minister.
Zee News once supported BJP on-air while its owner sat in the Rajya Sabha.
This is not “news.”
This is controlled theatre.
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🧩 What About Regional News?
TV9 in different states plays safe or leans towards power.
ABP Ananda avoids upsetting state governments.
Sudarshan TV openly promotes Hindutva agenda.
DD News only shows government in good light.
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📺 The Farmer’s Truth
A farmer once said:
> “News doesn’t reach us. And our truth doesn’t reach them.”
He’s right.
These newsrooms are not built to hear the poor.
They are built to:
Please power
Sell fear
Kill time
Repeat lies
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✅ So What Should You Do?
Switch off TV more often
Read slow and honest platforms
Ask real questions
Talk to real people
Observe your world, not their screen
Think without shouting
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TV news cannot tell the truth — because it was never built for that.
It was built to distract, divide, and dominate.
You must escape it, one quiet truth at a time.
We Interrupt This Lie for a Commercial Break
A slow-burn poem on why TV news can never tell the truth. Indian context. Truth stripped. Real.
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the man sits.
plastic chair, LED eyes.
his tea has gone cold,
but he’s still boiling inside.
because the anchor told him
someone out there is his enemy.
the screen flashes red—
BREAKING: Nothing has happened
but they yell anyway.
one more hour of noise,
another night of no silence.
---
meanwhile,
his daughter holds up her homework.
"Papa, the river dried up again."
he nods without looking.
because a man in a suit just said,
"the nation wants to know."
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you want to know something?
News18 is Ambani.
NDTV is Adani.
Republic is BJP’s pitbull in heat.
and Times Now?
well, it’s noise in a tie.
Sudarshan speaks in saffron.
DD News wears white like a corpse.
TV9 changes its accent
depending on who is feeding it.
the truth?
it died three commercial breaks ago.
---
a farmer once screamed
outside the collector’s office.
he wanted to be heard.
but the reporter packed up
because there was no camera crew
and no sponsor for truth.
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anchors with ₹50,000 suits
don’t go to sewage-soaked slums.
they don’t listen to coughing kids
or sit with tribal widows
who lost husbands to 'accidents'.
they shout.
they spit.
they point fingers.
and then smile as the ad for
fairness cream rolls in.
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they don’t show you
your child’s school collapsing.
they show you
a Bollywood divorce.
they don’t show you
groundwater dying in Bundelkhand.
they show you
a fistfight in Parliament.
they don’t show you
your medicine was banned abroad.
they show you
a saint slapping someone.
---
is a control room.
not for sound.
not for light.
for fear.
fear sells faster than rice.
fear gets you to sit down,
shut up,
and swallow
whatever they feed you.
---
in that dark room,
men with fat bellies and fat wallets
watch charts of “viewer engagement.”
one says,
"don’t run the story on school food poisoning—
not until Nestlé clears it."
another says,
"make sure Arnab yells tonight—
the numbers drop when he breathes."
---
somewhere in Jharkhand,
a girl walks five kilometres
to the nearest school.
no one has asked her name.
but her story won’t be aired.
unless she dies
in a way that bleeds on camera.
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they don't want you wise.
they want you wired.
they want you arguing about Mandir-Masjid
while your kitchen runs out of dal.
they want you counting
Pakistan’s missiles
while your father waits
in a government hospital
for a machine that never works.
---
truth is cheap.
but honesty is expensive.
and your TV doesn’t have the budget for it.
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so tonight,
when the anchor points and screams,
remember:
he’s not talking to you.
he’s not reporting.
he’s performing.
and you?
you’re not watching the news.
you’re watching a curtain
hiding the fire behind your house.
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Switch it off.
go outside.
talk to the man selling peanuts.
he’ll tell you more truth in five minutes
than the screen has in five years.
and that, my friend,
won’t be sponsored.