The news is not really good. Rather there is a lot of bad stuff appearing on the surface. No, we are not talking about the recession around the globe; but we are bothered about the mess coming out of the Pandora’s Box in the so called mirror of the society- media.

The things went into the eyes when the resignation letter of Monika Hallan, Editor, Outlook Money came in the public domain. She has gone out of the way and told all of us in the world about the intervention from the management and further questioned the credentials of the Outlook Money Awards. Her claims, if true, have put the publication in a spot.

Pyramid Seimera – the south based entertainment company faced public scrutiny as an allegedly forged letter from SEBI cropped up asking the promoters to hike their stakes. Adfactors a known public relations agency got its image tainted due to an alleged involvement of an employee who reportedly gave this news to newspapers. The nadir was hit when two reputed dailies carried it without verifying the facts. The apologies appeared in the newspapers have raised many questions, time to revisit basics of journalism.

In another instance, Veer Sanghavi has voiced out his differences with the editor of Mint, as his coloumn is not carried in the same newspaper owing to Veer's criticism of Mint's reporting in Satyam affair.

These are quality issues that are cropping up as the recession engulfs the economy. Media is no exception, as the top slot media houses are undergoing business strain, people are being fired in most publications and some media entities have failed to survive. On the one hand the party seems to be over and on the other expert investor and broker Ramesh Damani expects media to lead the next rally in the market.

But the reality is that keep aside the profitability of the business, there are many gaps in the functioning of the media entities, especially the news houses. The days have gone long back when the press could be relied upon as the 'fourth estate'. But it is dismal if we can’t find colourless reporting of plain facts. Media barons must take a serious note of the same as the options available to our readers are expected to widen, as FDI is round the corner.