Reporters sell what people want, and most people want shocking, naughty, or scary stories—not quiet things like meditation—so the bad gets spotlighted and the good is ignored.
From the Discourses
Passages where Osho speaks to this question — each links to the complete discourse.
I have been observing that whenever press people come to the ashram they are always looking for something negative -- sex, money, etcetera, etcetera. Can't they see what is happening here?
They can see. They see it but they can't report it. You have to understand. The people who read the newspapers and the magazines are constantly searching for the negative, they are looking for the negative. To them, good news is no news. Only the bad news is news, only the negative has appeal for them. If somebody murders it is news, if somebody rapes it is news. George Bernard Shaw used to say that when a dog bites a man it is not news, but when a man bites a dog it is news. Something unusual, something that should not be, has to be reported. Only then are people thrilled. People live on negativity. And the consumer decides; because he purchases, his needs have to be fulfilled. The people who read the newspapers are sexually repressed; they are hankering for something sexual. That is a vicarious satisfaction but they…
Osho, are all the journalists blind? Can't they see the truth? Why are they continuously spreading lies about you?
A journalist is taught by his profession to always remain at a distance: "Look from the outside." And from the outside you can never know how things are. A pretty young woman was traveling in a train across Texas. A dapper looking man walked up to her and whispered something in her ear, whereupon she gave him a stinging slap in the face. A tall Texan seated across the aisle stood up and asked her, "Is this man molesting you, Ma'am?" "He certainly is," she replied. "He just offered me ten dollars if I would go with him to his sleeping compartment." Without hesitation, the Texan pulled out his pistol and shot the man. "Good God!" cried the woman. "That's no reason to kill him!" "I will kill any man," replied the Texan, "who tries to raise the prices in Texas." If you had looked only from the outside you…
Beloved Osho, for a commercial organization, marketing is the ultimate life source; however, some marketing professionals suffer from an element of contradiction in their personal lives. Vis-a-vis professional objectives, are we selling things to people that they don't need?
The responsibility of the journalist is to bring before the people authentic facts, to make them aware how to avoid perversions. Homosexuality is not a disease; it is just a symptom of a disease. The real disease is celibacy, which is being preached by all religions. Now it is a strange game. The same people who are the cause of creating AIDS are condemning homosexuals. And they are the real criminals -- if anybody needs to be behind bars, it is all your saints and all your preachers and all your priests. But not the homosexuals, they are victims -- victims of an absolutely wrong psychology being preached for centuries. Don't fulfill sick needs. Expose the fact that those sick needs are arising from a certain source. And create a protest in the minds of people so that the sources can be stopped. You cannot fight with the sick needs…
Although many journalists are very touched after meeting with you, the reports that actually appear rarely reflect this and sometimes are even negative. Can a journalist be authentic?
It is difficult for poor journalists to be authentic. They are really touched; I can see their faces, I have seen even tears of joy in their eyes. But when their reports come, they are negative. It has nothing to do with the interview that they have done with me; what they have written they could have written without the interview. They are talking about the gossip going around, about the archbishop preparing for a protest, that people are afraid that if I remain here then I will destroy their old tradition and I will corrupt their youth -- just the old charges which they had against Socrates, corruption of the youth. But in my heart I know this is not the journalist; this is just a poor human being serving under chief editors, owners, and following their dictates. They send him here not to report exactly what I am…
Osho! In the morning discourse on May 22 a young man threw a knife and tried to kill you, but failed. What’s surprising is that no newspaper criticized the incident, and no “high-ranking” person made any statement about it! Nor did any paper or magazine print praise for the loving way ashram residents treated that man. Why are intellectuals and ordinary people all so full of indifference? Osho, your main ashram stands in such a dead country—where even a branch would seem pointless.
Israel cannot accept me. Christians cannot. Communists cannot. Wherever I live there will be trouble. I did not decide to live in India by accident; it is the most feasible place. So don’t worry, Kailash Goswami, “In such a dead country is it right for you to live?” Where there are corpses, there most is the need for someone to awaken the dead. Where there is illness, there a physician is needed. Where there is disease, there must be treatment. And yes, this country is dead—long dead. Yet great potential lies hidden here. The country that gave birth to Buddha, Krishna, Mahavira, Kabir, Nanak, Farid—that country has fire hidden under ash. The ash is five thousand years old. If we can remove it, the embers can glow again. And remember, we haven’t used our genius for five thousand years. That can be a benefit—like land left fallow for years accumulates…