Note: I have desisted from naming any individual or organisation in this post, not because I respect them or want their identity to be protected, but because as a freelancer I am a talentless coward with little options but to go back to those very people and organisations whom I’ve criticized in this post.
I quit my first job with a media organisation last year in October. I published my first article as a freelancer in December, and more than 10 since. My profile is quite diverse, both in terms of the topics I’ve written on and the outlets that have run my stories. My experiences below are based on only those outlets that I’ve published with as a freelancer.
Lay readers who suspect Indian media’s standards to be low are wrong - the standards are non-existent. As a freelancer, one can fabricate data, claims, and even quotes (this is most likely true for journalists employed by those organisations as well, but I can only speculate). In the most shocking incidence so far, a piece of mine carried several quotes which can easily be termed sensational, none of which was on record. I was worried about getting the piece past editors at any outlet because I did not have recordings to back up those quotes. To my utter disbelief, the outlet which finally published it did not bother to raise a single query about any of the quotes. “Jesus fuck” - the response of a senior journalist friend when I informed him about this - tells the tale succinctly. This essentially means that one can get away with concocting fake quotes attributed to fake identities. The only problem with that would be when an alert reader decides to do a background check on the fake identity. But you and I know that’s unlikely to happen. In any case, the media outlet won’t bother to play the role of the alert reader.
The problem with Indian media is not restricted to hopeless editorial standards. They’re downright unprofessional in the way they treat freelancers. Big outlets don’t ever bother to respond unless the author’s reputed, or has contacts high up. The smaller, new media ones do so with disdain. Repeated requests might just elicit a response if one’s lucky. If they agree to publish, they will almost always do it at times when the readership is at its lowest ebb - sunday afternoon, and 10 PM on a weekday. Some outlets have horrible social media strategy, they can’t even compose one proper tweet or Facebook update and post it at the right time. Some editors are so callous that they won’t even post a readymade tweet mailed to them by the author.
Worst of all, the pieces are titled and edited without the author’s consent. As a freelancer, the baffling consistency with which non-sequitur titles are allotted to my piece is my biggest bugbear. This phenomenon is common across almost all outlets. In the most memorable instance, the title of my piece was Gunda-esque - so bad that it was good. The bigger worry is that it came directly from a so-called doyen of Indian journalism. For the sake of Indian journalism, I hope he titled it such because he enjoyed mocking an unknown freelancer’s work, and not because he’s actually that stupid. I think there’s something seriously wrong with the outlet being run by this person. I had a similar experience - albeit not concerning the title - with its co-founder, another reputed journalist.
One incident has left a particularly bad taste: I sent my piece to a certain outlet (not the one I refer to in the previous para) - and vigorously defended my right to have a final look at it before it was published. I was given a choice - withdraw the piece or have no say in how it comes out. I will always regret choosing the latter (read note at the top). Thankfully, they didn’t mess it up, but that doesn’t alleviate my regret one bit.
Sadly, this isn’t true just for the new media outlets. It’s true even for one of India’s most respected English dailies. One of its editorial columnists has made it a habit to fabricate and selectively quote data to back his bigotry. One of my works as a freelancer involved publishing a fully accurate, data-heavy article rebutting his lies. I’d initially sent that article to the editors of that very newspaper, thinking that as guardians of the truth, it was their duty to publish it. I was wrong. I never got a response from any of them. I ended up publishing it with another outlet. In the days since, the columnist has continued to flood the paper with falsehoods, but all of my warnings have gone unheeded.
Thankfully, there is a silver lining. Of all the outlets I’ve worked with as a freelancer, there is one exception to the rule. They respond promptly, demand data sources, and always make sure to get back to me with the title, edits, and even the usually high-quality tweet composed for my piece. My only concern is that one of their editors has no knowledge whatsoever of economics, which is why one of my pieces was rejected. But I’d choose ignorance over conceit and sheer incompetence any day.
I hate not being able to reveal names. I hate having to work with those very people. Another reason to become famous and powerful: a tell-all book.
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