The Fourth Pillar of Democracy isn’t collapsing—it’s being auctioned off in broad daylight.
When billionaires own the channels that shape what a billion people watch, truth becomes just another commodity. mukesh ambani and gautam Adani—two of India’s most powerful tycoons—don’t just control oil, ports, and telecom. They also control the screens that decide what india believes.

Welcome to the age where journalism doesn’t speak truth to power—because power already owns the microphone.

🧱 1. The Silent corporate Coup

While politicians fight for votes, corporations quietly seize influence. reliance Industries (Mukesh Ambani) owns Network18, one of India’s largest news conglomerates, with channels like CNN-News18, News18 India, CNBC-TV18, CNBC Awaaz, and over a dozen regional variants across states. From english to Urdu, from tamil Nadu to Odisha—Reliance controls the narrative across linguistic borders.

adani Group, meanwhile, took over NDTV, one of India’s most reputed independent news outlets, bringing NDTV 24x7 and NDTV India under its corporate umbrella.

📺 2. The Myth of 27 and 12

The viral claims that Ambani owns 27 and adani owns 12 news channels may stretch the truth—but they expose something far bigger: media concentration so intense, it blurs the line between journalism and monopoly.
Even if the numbers are lower, the impact is enormous—because owning even a handful of top networks means controlling the lens through which millions see national reality.

🗞️ 3. When news Turns into PR

In a healthy democracy, the media challenge power. In today’s india, it often protects it. When corporations control newsrooms, dissent fades and debate is replaced by diversion. Headlines become advertisements. Anchors become cheerleaders. The watchdog of democracy now wags its tail for its masters.

🔥 4. The Price of “Sponsored Truth”

tv debates scream, hashtags trend, and outrage cycles spin nonstop—but behind the noise, the uncomfortable truth stays buried. Investigative journalism is dying because it’s bad for business. The result? A population fed with narratives, not news. What we’re watching isn’t reality—it’s reality manufactured for profit and politics.

🧩 5. The Death of Pluralism

India’s media space was once vibrant, messy, and gloriously diverse. Today, it’s shrinking into echo chambers owned by conglomerates. When two businessmen control the majority of major networks, “independent journalism” becomes an illusion. What’s left is a polished version of the truth—edited, filtered, and approved.

⚠️ 6. What’s at Stake

When the Fourth Pillar crumbles, the entire structure of democracy shakes. The moment news stops questioning power, democracy stops breathing. Every citizen watching prime-time tv tonight should ask one question:
Is this journalism—or marketing in disguise?

🧨 FINAL TAKE

The problem isn’t that billionaires own media. The problem is that billionaires own the narrative. When truth becomes an investment portfolio, the audience becomes a product—and democracy becomes a brand.

The Fourth Pillar isn’t gone yet. But if citizens stop questioning who writes the headlines, it soon will be.