To say that the media has been unbalanced and unfair is nothing new, it has been criticized for that since it's inception. However, the ugly head of the media really reared it's ugly head over the past couple of weeks with the wedding of Abhishek Bachchan and Aishwarya Rai.

We are starting to find out that no news seems to be legitimate anymore, now it's turning into a medium of gossip and rumors. While that's fine for filmi mags and Bollywood websites, it's scary how much this holds true to our newspapers and news channels.

Since the engagement of Bachchan and Rai was announced, the rumors printed in the media have ranged from amusing to downright maddening. From protests over Rai being forced to marry a tree because she's a Manglik (which was never proven and denied by all parties), to Hrithik Roshan performing at the sangeet (which was untrue), to the wedding rights being sold for Rs. 5 crore (again, untrue), it's been one false story after another.

For the last couple of weeks, here at AllBollywood.com, we have kept the reports on the wedding to a minimum. We reported the major aspects of it, but left it at that. However, that wasn't the case for most newspapers and web sites who covered the wedding as if it were a national election. The amount of print that has been given to the media has gotten me exhausted, and I'm not even involved!

Perhaps the worst part of it was the vindictiveness of certain media outlets. Many people inside the media bashed the Bachchans for not inviting and accommodating the media, despite the Bachchans proclaiming from the beginning that it was a private affair and more somber than normal due to the illness of Amitabh Bachchan's mother, Teji Bachchan. Still, the media attacked, calling the Bachchan's selfish for not inviting the media to the wedding since the media (in their minds) helped make the careers of the Bachchans.

That argument is just ridiculous. The CEO of one of our Partner sites, IndianDating.com, recently got married. IndianDating.com has over 1 million members. Should the CEO be forced to invite all members of the website since they are responsible for the success of the site? Should a newspaper journalist be obligated to post pictures of their wedding in a publication since its readers are responsible for its success? Are there no longer any occasions that a family can have privacy and not be forced to have to perform for the cameras?

The media's discontent for the access they were granted for the wedding showed just days later as one outlet ran a story saying that the Bachchan's sold the photo rights for the wedding for a whopping Rs. 5 crore. Of course, this again was false with Amitabh Bachchan himself saying "This is totally false. No such rights were given. And even if we were offered such a deal, we'd have rejected it outright. The wedding was a very private moment for our family and close friends."

It's unfortunate that news is just becoming an extension of entertainment and there are few, if any, sources out there that post facts as opposed to rumors and lies posted on a website blog. With more and more newspapers posting entertainment rumors and gossip on the front page, things aren't getting any better. One hopes that with all the falsehoods that we've witnessed over the last couple of weeks, that people see how much of the news out there is make believe and take some of the more scandalous news they hear in the future with a grain of salt.

How do you feel about the media's involvement with the Bachchan - Rai wedding? That is the question for this week's AllBollywood.com opinion poll which you can vote for on the left side of the screen.