Indian media seems to be forever looking for ‘news’. The vociferous news presenters, Editors, reporters, anchors, ‘experts’ all seem to be opinionated beyond one’s belief. Their only mission in life it seems is to colour any and every incident or event to the hue that suits them.
We will look at two ‘items’ hogging all the airtime last week on TV – Varun Gandhi & IPL.
Varun Gandhi making an election speech or some would like to believe addressing the BJP cadre is well, news that probably merits to be reported. Granted if the address is not run of the mill, which in this case definitely was not, the channels are at liberty to report it, play the audio visual etc. The channels of course have every right to highlight parts of the address which is seen as inflammatory or antagonistic to any one group or community. Should the media pay so much attention to some misguided, over enthusiastic, may be desperate campaigner, irrespective of what his last name is?
What is the media trying to achieve by playing the video footage n (n=∞) times? Did they succeed in getting Varun Gandhi to apologise or express regret? Did his party pass strictures? Nothing.
One wonders if we have all become so sadistic or perverse that all we want to see is negative or bad news. Let me tell u it is sickening – it is equivalent of watching suffering and death.
Will any channel have the guts to stand out and do anything different?
IPL: In all fairness IPL + elections at the same time is a knotty problem, for sure. In as much as elections are paramount, one cannot smash IPL out of sight, too. The impression one got all of last week (and now) watching TV coverage was that the channels were reveling in the fact that the problem is so complex. In fact the coverage, analyses (if u can call four or more people simultaneously shouting at the top of their voices or rather shrieking as analysis) all seemed to tend towards concluding that IPL 2 was out! Adding to the confusion, though to some it was tamasha, was the statements by IPL, Arun Jaitley, Narendra Modi and such. Obliquely the coverage seemed to suggest that the Govt. was not interested in providing required security.
Nothing is going to change! Lets have fun!
L.Ravichandran
ravi@chennaionline.com