I cringe when I watch television news these days. It's almost like I, as a viewer, am embarassed. The moment the camera is switched on, our news anchors and presenters switch off their humility metre. "Modesty, what's that? We are here to promote our channel!"
Good ol' Barkha Dutt. From the days of being everyone's favourite anchor/reporter, she's now turning out to be everyone's favourite whipping girl. "Why does she have to hyperventilate like that in front of the camera?," is a commonly heard refrain these days. Whoever watched her attempt a P2C in front of 10 Janpath yesteray amidst all that chaos would know what I'm talking about. "Let's not forget, Ms. Gandhi refused to comment on her stand on the controversial ordinance. Infact, I was the one who asked the question..." We all know who asked the question. Do we dare mistake that voice?
One particular Breaking News tag sent me into peals of laughter last year. "Karisma Kapoor and Sanjay Kapur to separate..." Hell, for all the pains you guys took, they are back in holy matrimony, and happily so. Another cringe- moment came when I was watching Sagarika Ghose anchoring a late-night show the other day, where she was interviewing the slain Priyadarshini Mattoo's father. Now, we all know nothing can be worse than justice denied. Those who survived a tragedy need nothing more to dampen their spirits than an unfair judicial system. But does that justify sensationlism? I couldn't believe my ears when Ms. Ghose said, "Mr. Mattoo, there was not a single dry eye in our office when we read your story in the Express..." Whatever happened to good old objective, non-sensational, to-the-point journalism?!
The "impact" stories are not targeted for the goodwill of the common man or the audience. They are on screen just so that all those beautifully edited bytes have an impact on the TRP ratings. Period.
Give me my newspapers anyday. Or, bring in Rini Khanna and Sunit Tandon. While on the topic, do read this. It's hilarious!
