Should journalists, especially political journalists, vote in an election? Are we revealing our political bias by marking our choice which we then expertly conceal when we write, edit, report?
On the other hand, can journalists be hermits who reside outside the thickets of the socio-political jungle we claim to bring home to readers, viewers, listeners? Should we be equidistant in pursuit of that mirage called objectivity? Or do we have a silly, exaggerated notion of ourselves and our jobs?
These are old questions that have asked and answered before.
H.R. Venkatesh of CNN-IBN faced them as he went into his polling booth in Bangalore this afternoon. As he blogged lived from his BlackBerry™:
12:30 pm: Voted! Walked into the school which is doubling up as a polling booth. The queue is not long at all, and before I know it, a man’s pushing me into one of the classrooms. Have to make a small confession here – this is my first time – and am momentarily confused. But the line of people sitting inside waives me through the scrutiny of ID, the dabbing of indelible ink and the stamping of a paper slip. The Electronic Voting Machine stumps me – I’d walked in without giving a thought to who I’d vote for and now I pause. Who do I vote for? I reject the Congress, BJP and JD(S) candidates on the grounds that a journalist should never vote for a major political party. The rest is simple. I choose an Independent candidate who has a bat for a logo, on the grounds that I can’t do much wrong with him. Perhaps he will do something for the Royal Challengers if voted :) People have voted for worse reasons, haven’t they?
Read the full blog: Bangalore votes
Cross-posted on sans serif
churumuri 
Mr. Venkatesh threw away his vote, but I hope he won’t get the MLA he deserves.
LikeLike
That’s disgusting. Stay at home instead making a mockery of democracy.
LikeLike
very stupid
LikeLike
When most journalists and “journalists” display no intellectual wherewithal for such issues, Venkatesh deserves to be complimented not only for admitting his dilemma but also for documenting it. He has ensured that nobody accuses him of not taking part in the democracy he reports and wasting his vote, but he has ensured that his conscience is clean.
But a true journalist is one who bravely marks his choice and does not allow his personal preferences to influence his professional duties. By casting his vote for the bat because he didn’t consciously want to vote for the major parties, Venkatesh has taken the easy course for public consumption. Is it really so difficult to vote for the Congress, BJP or JDS and remain independent?
LikeLike
Mr. Venkatesh decided to be more of an opportunist(not a journalist) than a *good citizen*. How does he intend to keep a straight face, tell the masses about the banes of Indian politics when he made an irresponsible and knee-jerk choice to vote for a bat ? If anyone knows who is better(lesser evil) of the lot, it was him and his ilk ! The IPL mention just adds insult to the mockery.
If we are talking of journalistic values, why did he reveal who he voted for ? Smacks of opportunism — he saw an opportunity to make a spectacle of it and generate fodder for his blog, and, unfortunately went for it. I understand and appreciate the dilemma, but his actions are not beyond being suspect and unbecoming.
Lesser privileged voters who sold out for Rs 500/- to feed their families were far more responsible citizens than Mr. Venkatesh who pimped his ballot for a blog post..
LikeLike
Good on Mr. Venkatesh for exposing the absurdity of universal suffrage in India.
None of the candidates in any given constituency have any agenda, issue or programme except re-election, and making enough money to get re-elected.
Those that do have a different agenda, don’t have the money to tell us about it.
… and yes, this is how middle class India makes its electoral choices these days.
We are equally disgusted with all parties, and do not wish to have anything to do with seeing any of them come to power.
Anyone would be better than them.
LikeLike
absolutely silly gimmick.What else can we expect from these cheap TV Reporters and that too from CNN IBN , a channel which always Praises itself and whose credibility is always suspect.
LikeLike
No journalist who has received a favor from the government, Raj Chengappa, for instance, should have no vote. MLCs appointed by the ruling party should not be able to vote. No failed Lokayuktha who blames his spinelessness on the government’s refusal to allow him to prosecute this minister or that IAS officer should be allowed to vote.
LikeLike
Ok let us assume that he voted for one of the candidates belonging to BJP,JD(S) or Cong.All 3 parties have as their candidate the “one who gets elected and does nothing to the people “.So it really does not matter whom he votes for.. bat or ball… as we as umpire have always given our decision wrong.Plus the whole concept of political journalist should not reveal his political bias comes only if the party he supports has some real issues/ideology for example lets say if you are a journalist in US and you are anti-abortion you are a republican and in your writing you might lean towards Republicans and not Democrats…In India none of the political parties stand for any issues…except may be one calls itself as secular and other calls itself as the champion of Hindus..In India even if the journalists
leans towrds one party nobody really cares as long as he/she demands basic things to be provided for people like food,shelter,clothing(Bijli,sadak,paani) in his writing..
LikeLike
Forget about the vote ! atleast u r voting secretly. Quesion is can a journalist openly side with a party like Ravi belegere?
LikeLike