In 1947, India finally won the struggle for Independence and got rid of the British. Over the next few years, Dr.B.R.Ambedkar meticulously prepared a humungous 5000 page document that, in its edited version was to become the Constitution of India. Among those 5000 pages, one particular page was dedicated to the Right to Freedom of Expression which is the closest it gets to giving India the Freedom of Press.
However, if Dr.Ambedkar had at that point of time anticipated that 5 decades later, we would have these extremely repulsive zombies dressed in coats and other modern fashionable fibres bringing to us reports of dogs biting each other to death as the latest breaking news of the day, he might have chosen to stealthily eliminate those 3 magic words called 'Freedom of Expression' and made the monotonous and insipid (and literally boring) Doordarshan the only official mouth piece of the Government. As it turns out, Kaliyuga arrived and we were destined to be doomed because a few years later, Vinod Mehta and M.J.Akbar were born. Then there was no looking back, zombies won every battle from there and today, we have been reduced to believing what they tell us about the state of affairs in this country.
There is no glory left in the Indian Media. It has seen all the possible lows. There's no single thing you can actually say you love about the media. They sensationalize things, gang up on people who they dont like, give over build up to vetti scene people. So you will appreciate how difficult it was for me to short list just 5 things I hate about the media. But I have managed to do it, and I'm sure you will agree !
Sleep is heavenly not at night but in the afternoon. I was once enjoying my 3 hour afternoon nap when suddenly, I heard the Johnny Quest theme music at a distance. I sat up immediately thrilled !! Yes !! Johnny Quest was back ! I didn't exactly swim across seven seas, but did run across seven rooms at breakneck speed, accruing expletives from everyone around on my way and a final, heroic leap onto the sofa (a leap that would make Anju Bobby Geroge proud) and turned my eyes towards the television.....
...to see that a zombie was doing a report on Land Mafia's taking over land from middle class people in Delhi suburbs. Apparently it was inspired from "Khosla ka Ghosla" and a Citijen Journalist (amateur Zombie) thought it would be fit to tell the world what exactly was happening there. I understand his pheelings, the report itself was well researched and decent. Ellam Seri.... What I ask is, why on earth would they use a BG score for a news report ?!?! And as if that were not enough, the Johnny Quest score ?? Gary Lionelli would've died five times on seeing that, each time reawakening from the dead on the simple hope that they would've stopped playing it. Like Moaning Myrtle, His Soul will Haunt them forever.
Not in my wildest dreams can I imagine the insatiable urge of an editor to add music to a news report. What is the point ? Adding music totally shifts away the focus from the core issue and makes the news piece look like a television serial. It is sensationalism at its worst.
Probably the most used, over used and abused word in the Indian Media today is "Exclusive". The age and experience of a news channel is gauged by how many times in one hour they use this word. Everyone knows that newsreaders and reporters are trained before they take up their respective jobs in the Channel. An important part of that training is to get the newsreader to habitually say "Exclusive" once every ten minutes. People who cannot get themselves to say Exclusive naturally are sent of and advised not to pursue the noble art of News reading.
Exactly what they mean by exclusive, I don't know. "Osama Bin Laden dead, Exclusive Report !". How can bin Laden dying be an exclusive report ??? It is a piece of news, you fool!
Equally irritating, if not more, is the damned practice of saying "Your Channel brought this first to you!" "Fifteen people died in the crash! Remember, your channel reported it first" "The CM died, Your Channel reached the accident site first, even before the Police did" Oh Yeah ? You didn't reach there before the accident happened ? Why didn't you die ?
 |
Mandeep Bevli of Grand Stand - The scary sight all news watchers
must have seen at least once and pray they never see again ! |
 |
| Rahul Kanwal - Straight from the Cartoon book. |
An insane man once remarked, "Indian Media is among the best in the World." As if to take his word seriously and immediately propose a solution to this problem of the dire dearth of nonsense in the Indian Media, God said "Let there be Headlines Today".
Headlines Today consider themselves to be "Refreshingly Different". I call them "Murderously Indifferent". On a hopeless day, while the rest of the news channels go overboard on calling politicians names after the 2G scam is uncovered, one switches to Headlines Today to see their side of the story, only to find a detestable Mandeep Bevli shaking every single of her 206 bones (as if to prove to us she has them) along all directions, telling us which film of we must watch this weekend.
This can be forgiven, because they aren't exactly trying to report news here. But what comes next is unpardonable. Halfway through Bevli's monkey dance, BREAKING NEWS flashes across the screen and when you finally get prepared to watch some news, a cartoon pops up. On closer observation for 2 more minutes, you realise that the cartoon you think is a cartoon, is not actually a cartoon - It is Rahul Kanwal. He tells you in animated breaths how A.Raja's aide's wife's brother's brother-in-law's grandfather had taken a bribe from an Officer during the British Raj telling us that Corruption runs in Raja's family. That is the breaking news. Brilliantly researched isn't it ? After this, Belvi returns
Together, Bevli and Kanwal form the core of Headlines Today's News team. They are the face of Indian Media Nonsense. But that isn't it. There is more.
Barkha Dutt is the best example for a nice apple gone bad. She in many ways is the single biggest loss to the body of Good News Reporters. She started off during Kargil when NDTV was one of the few channels around. Without the competition, news reporting was at its best during those days. NDTV had a great team in Pranoy Roy, Vikram Chandra, Rajdeep Sardesai, Sonia Singh and others, among them Barkha Dutt.
Over the years, with the advent of other channels, Barkha Dutt and to a great extent NDTV, have given away to sensationalism and to exaggeration, like many of their competitors. While the rest of the NDTV team didn't rot, Barkha Dutt went a little too far for reclamation. She started poking her humungous nose into politics, lobbying for people, trying to with her contacts for news, quite often trapped red handed. A lot of her credibility as a fair journalist has now been lost.
She is often accused of conducting Media Trials and of character assassination. She tweets on fake accounts about herself and her programme and also shows those tweets as opinion of the general public. She is routinely snubbed by people , often gets her facts wrong and goes over board in trying to make a point leaning towards her point of view,when, ideally, she is supposed to be neutral.
Barkha Dutt is among the most irritatingly things to see on news today. But NDTV remains the best network by a large margin, except perhaps CNN-IBN.
In Sparta, when children are born, they are closely observed for any defects. If any defects are found, they are discarded. Around the time King Leonidas was fighting Xerxes near the Hot Gate, a child was born with a strangely shaped head. X-ray machines of those ancient days (about 480 BC) were crude, but they showed something which no one could refute, the baby had no brain in the head.
The baby was discarded. Fighting with wolves, sharks in the sea and finally, terrorists from the Pakistan Army.. chi,no... from the Al Qaeda, the baby, who had by then grown into an adult, finally reached the emerald blue waters of the Arabian Sea and saw that he had reached the Gateway of India. The man decided that his experiences needed to motivate a generation of people to follow in his footsteps. The man decided that everyone needed to listen to this story, to every story of the suppressed, the depressed and the oppressed (He was a big TR fan then too. TR has a huge fan base in Sparta). The man decided, he would become a News Reader. From then on, the boy won every battle of his life and is today one of the many Brainless Newsreaders in India. He is none other than Arnab Goswami.
Arnab Goswami's horrific past has a huge impact on his Newsreading. First, everyone knows he has no brains. though he never publicly said that, people are very understanding of him. He has an inclination towards others with no brains, and so Rahul Shivshankar is another important part of Times Now. He lets only guests with no brains talk on his show, BJP Spokesperson Ravi Shankar Prasad, the most regular of them. In fact, it wouldnt be inaccurate at all, to say that Ravi Shankar Prasad works for Times Now. He is the most regular feature on the channel, apart from Arnab Goswami himself.
Second, Arnab feels that since elders in Sparta didn't give him a chance to speak before dumping him into garbage, he will not let anyone else speak on his channel. He is notorious for asking incomprehensibly long questions and then interrupting the guests answering him in less than 5 seconds. In fact, a new trend in JAM is emerging. These days winners in a JAM contest have another round after the usual ones. They have to compete against a recorded blabber of Arnab Goswami. No one has won it yet.
While I could go on ranting for hours about Arnab Goswami and his legacy over the years, I will stop here in the interest of the length of this post. Indian Media in general, and the electronic media in particular have always looked up to their western counterparts for ideas to improve. While the masala added is something that is a realistic necessity for making news more acceptable, it is important that our media draws a definite line between commercialism and sincere news reporting.
Another thing our media must understand is that at the end of the day, how many ever other channels exist to compete against them, the news they report is the same. A channel doesn't become unique by using the spelling "Qasab" or "Kasav" instead of "Kasab". A channel can be unique only by its content. Good content, minus the sensationalism will still appeal to the audiences. If newspapers like The Hindu can survive only on the basis of their staunch belief in quality content, it shouldn't be tough for established news channels to do it.
The Media must to a great extent stop telling the Government and the people what to do. Their role begins and ends at carrying information to the people. Analysing it for them is acceptable, but deciding for them is not.
Our Media has a long way to go. Hope it learns its lessons quickly!
Glossary of Terms :
1. Worshtu - Worst with an emphasis
2. Zombie - the word zombie amd its relevance to the news readers can be explained by the following definition "A hypnotized person bereft of consciousness and self-awareness, yet ambulant and able to respond to surrounding stimuli." (courtesy : Wikipedia).
2. Citijen - 'Amits' (North Indians) pronounce Citizen that way
3. Ellam Seri - Literally means 'everything is ok', used usually when nothing is ok and you have something to complain about. It is normally followed with a bad insult.
4. Pheelings - Feelings with an emphasis
Recommended Articles:
If you want to read more posts on the state of the Indian media, you can visit the following posts which inspired this entry
1. http://www.rakeshjhunjhunwala.in/2010/10/arnab-goswami-birth-of-hero.html
2. http://swathipradeep-comics.blogspot.com/2010/11/barkha-dutt-scam-part-1.html
3. http://karthik3685.wordpress.com/2007/11/27/contender-1-for-worst-indian-journalist-arnab-goswami/
4. http://www.gkhamba.com/2010/04/open-letter-to-arnab-goswami-of-times.html
