Broken news

Yes, the news channel industry is broken. That is unfortunately not breaking news, 'coz its been happening for a while. Two excerpts in particular that I find grossly inappropriate:

"I just got an SMS. It says 'Mr. Raj Thackeray, not Marathi manoos but NSG came from New Delhi to save Mumbai from the terrorists'. ..."

Context: The famous journalist Mr. Prannoy Roy read this out from his mobile phone during live telecast, shortly after the NSG had killed the last terrorist at the Taj in November 2008.

"...Everybody is jubilant and we're getting a lot of jokes right now and reading them as we get them...This latest one reads ' The Indian team has done what the Indian intelligence could not: keep Pakistan out of Mumbai'...."

Context: An NDTV reporter read this out again during live coverage and post-match interviews with Ajay Jadeja, Sunil Gavaskar, Dean Jones and another NDTV reporter on air.

---Dear and allegedly respected TV journalists of today---

What the hell is wrong with you guys! Do you think you are sitting in some restaurant chatting with their buddies? How unprofessional can one be! You are broadcasting live, people are hearing you all over the world. And worst of all, you're a reputed TV news channel. Reading out SMS jokes evidently without any sort of screening!

If you must relieve your mind of your personal thoughts or share a racy tidbit, do that in your own personal setting. Do not blurt out anything on national TV. When you don official attire, sit in front of a camera to read out news and call yourself a journalist, you better own up to the immense responsibility that comes with it. I'm sorry, but you don't just have an ordinary 9-to-5 job. You don't deserve to do it if you think otherwise. Neither are you a simple sales or marketing representative. What you say has a multiplicative effect--whether you like it or not. Every word that you utter in front of the camera is amplified by the number of your viewers.

But hey, don't these jokes somehow reflect the reality of thought? Maybe, but you are not a reality TV show, you're news. If reality TV is what you think will get you revenue, declare yourself as a reality TV channel and create outrage for a living. Please don't act like Rakhi Sawant and demand the respect befitting Sanjiv Kumar. Please don't mix sports with politics. Is this Pakistani cricket team necessarily associated with the political leanings of their country? By that measure absolutely everybody in the Indian team ought to be utterly corrupt and incompetent!

I'm sure these rants help your ratings. That's why you do it. Then why cry holy hell when players fix matches? Aren't they too helping themselves rather than the "ethical greater good of their country"? Why cry foul when ministers are involved in scams? Money to them is what TRP is to you (actually its not TRP by itself, it is again the money that TRP brings in). Please tell me respect and dignity has not become such a cheap commodity that you are willing to forsake it any day just to win more ad revenue. Why don't you just read the news in the nude? I'm sure TRP will skyrocket!

Our honest (-ly clueless) prime minister

I'm all for honest politicians. I don't even have a problem that they occupy high posts in a democracy despite their inability to win an election (this inability could be circumstantial evidence of their honesty). But there comes a time when the virtue of honesty seems almost theoretical, i.e. admirable but without any practical use. Our current prime minister Mr. Manmohan Singh seems headed in this direction.

Mr. Singh said the only understandable thing he could when his government was faced with one scam after another: "I did not endorse...", "...all part of coalition dharma...". Let us humour our PM for one minute and assume he is truly being honest. If one believes as bad as one's friends are our enemies (i.e. opponents) are worse, would one not concoct any excuse not to let power slip away? Seems a s-t-r-e-t-c-h, but let's believe there is benevolence behind holding on to his chair. However his latest act bamboozles me the most!

India and Pakistan are once again locked in battle for the World Cup, this time the closest to the final match than ever before. Skeptics on both sides are reluctantly admitting to their opponents' strength and cynically analyzing the weaknesses of their own sides. The collective rise in blood pressures in the subcontinent warns of intravenous tsunamis. And as if displaying the text-book symptom, our Prime minister, in what can only be described as momentary disorientation, cordially invited the Pakistan Prime Minister to view the game. Hardly a genuine gesture of friendship, the hope is to play the cricket-diplomacy card again.

When we will learn? I admit I do not belong to the partition era, but I cannot understand this obsession with proactive peace-gestures that our leaders seem to have. This is as inexplicable as those saas-bahu serials where in the face of utmost animosity the protagonists sensibly tolerate the atrocities of the antagonists who are after all, "family". Even the Britishers accepted moral defeat in the face of non-violence in 40 years. By that stand we face an enemy worse than what our freedom fighters faced.

What frustrates me most is not that yet another time it is we who have extended a fig leaf--I'm proud that we have the bigger mind here. But what is the use of extending exactly the same fig leaf again and again despite receiving a blowtorch as an acknowledgement? Is there anything new that we are proposing this time, or is it the same rewound tape from 10-20-30 years ago? It is almost as if 26/11 did not happen. The defeat hidden behind the famous "Mumbai spirit" seems to be going national now, with every citizen expected to adjust to the new reality. Time heals all wounds, they say. We are witnessing a different time warp here where one side has expedited healing while the other side does not have one at all.

If we should not engage in active enmity, at least let us be indifferent. Why make a laughing stock out of us by acting like the overly good brother who just won't learn?

I feel really bad for both the cricket teams. As if having the expectations of their countrymen wasn't pressure enough, they are now being used as involuntary pawns to address an intractable problem. As usual one would get bouquets, the other would get brickbats (literally). India's loss would mean an instantaneous deletion of our past perfect record against Pakistan in the WC to the extent that people would act as if we never won against them. Pakistan's loss would mean the end of the World Cup tournament for many Indians (As Yuvraj Singh said, fans would say "win the semifinal, it doesn't matter if you win or lose the final"). Either way, predictably difficult times ahead for our cricket team of budding talent, and our governing team of mythical talent.