When the media were a child they wrote as a child. When they became older they put behind their childish ways. But they still write as a child - because they know no other way. Only which they were used to.

Such was the irony in last week’s story about how an NST news editor was clouded by uncertainty when he copy-tasted an article by an opposition leader.

With respect, Mr Moses, the mainstream media are not entering a “new era”. The era’s been there for yonks – as early as 1977 when Aliran was born.

Once, the docile – some might even say, sycophantic - mainstream media were blind. Today, they still are. Yes, the MSM may be ‘reacting to a more maturing society’ that came out to vote on March 8. The truer reality is mainstream editors are seemingly jostling to re-position their selective discourse to align with what the online community have been talking about since 1998.

A bit too late for redemption, don’t you think?

The mainstream media esprit de corps is way too entrenched in its old ways to be of any good these days. As far as articulating the fundamental values of fair and truthful journalism, and writing honestly about what many rank-and-file journalists know to be scandalous and corrupt – that, the mainstream editors have failed to lead.

Say sorry

It will take more than an election upset to see a born-again mainstream media denounce their old ways. The rakyat may forgive. They may even forgive the patronising platitudes of editorial bureaucrats that Malaysian readers are becoming mature.

But, the rakyat will not forget how the mainstream media had subverted the values of fair, ethical and truthful reporting of the last election – and others before that.

For shirking journalism’s core values, the mainstream media should arm-in-arm, in a full page ad, say to the rakyat: ‘We’re sorry. From this day forth, we promise…”

The copy to continue along the lines of Mahatma Gandhi’s notion of what the media ought to be: “… to educate the public mind, not to stock it with wanted and unwanted impressions” but “to serve the people”.

Since we’re banking on Gandhi’s vision to ‘save’ our mainstream media from embarrassing itself, I reproduce a quote in a letter Gandhi wrote to the editor of The Independent, a new daily in Allahabad, Uttar Pradesh on Jan 30, 1919:

“In wishing you success in your new enterprise, I would like to say how I hope your writings would be worthy of the title you have chosen for your journal; and may I further hope that to a robust of independence you will add an equal measure of self-restraint and the strictest adherence to truth?

“Too often in our journals as in others do we get fiction instead of fact and declamation in place of sober reasoning. You would make The Independent a power in the land and a means of education for the people by avoiding the errors I have drawn attention to.”

In the same year the British Parliament passed the Government of India Act that allowed Indian legislators to share power with the British. But the colonialists controlled the finance, taxation, and law and order.

The British also introduced the Rowlatt Act, which gave the Indian authorities the power to suppress dissent, censor the press, detain political activists without trial and arrest suspects without a warrant. Much like the Sedition Act, which the British introduced in Malaya in 1948.

A good reminder

The Rowlatt Acts sparked Gandhi’s campaign of 'satyagraha' (the devotion to truth or truth force) against the colonialist’s "instruments of oppression". He published an unregistered weekly Satyagraha, defying the British colonial government’s orders. He wrote: "A journalist's duty is to teach people to be brave, not to instil fear into them."

A good reminder, indeed, for our mainstream editors, who have become victims of their own learned fears. It took a makkal sakti reformasi driven election outcome to awake the mainstream media sloth.

Yes, it’s difficult territory covering the fear-stoking issues in Malaysian communal politics. But, we don’t avoid them. Nor should we deny that people do talk about these issues daily in the mamak stalls and behind closed doors.

Journalists should instead hold up a mirror to these issues, differentiate right from wrong, truth and untruths, sense and nonsense. Then, write to inform and educate the readers.

Failing that, the mainstream newspapers are only as good as nasi lemak wrappers.

We do need born-again journalists to chart a new path of discourse. Far away from the daily offerings of trite protocol news from recycled press releases, transcribed statements of bodoh ministers, social dross from pointless photo-ops, and politically correct stories from managed press conferences.

Not that we lack the journalistic talents out there. Scan the online community and you’ll see a few bloggers who write with authority – mainly former mainstream hacks, and committed public intellectuals who write and skirt around the press laws without diluting what they know to be true. Which is my next point. What if the press laws were repealed tomorrow? Would it stir the mainstream media sloth to quicken its pace and shape up?

Certainly not with the current cohort of editorial leaders from the old school of docile consensual journalism. We need a fresh generation of journalists - educated and committed to serving the people rather than the shareholders and political masters.

The fact is press freedom – though necessary - and quality journalism do not necessarily go hand in hand. In a free-for-all media environment, one takes the good and the bad. It was Deng Xiaoping who said: “When you open the window for fresh air, expect some flies to blow in.”

With Malaysian mainstream journalism, the drones have stayed with us for too long. We can’t seem to shoo them out. Not under the current system of media patronage.