A few days ago, a well-known Indian TV news channel ran a story about an Indo-Chinese skirmish in Sikkim. "Indian and Chinese troops involved in a skirmish in Nathu La", said the ticker tape, followed by "More Indian troops being deployed at the border". I watched in disbelief as the channel then went on to make this headline news, complete with visuals of Chinese soldiers marching on snowy slopes.
Viewers were being led to believe that our nation was going to war. While the smug newsmen must have sat back to enjoy their soaring viewership, the only thing that shot up in my household was blood pressure.
Fortunately, my nerves of steel held out and I reasoned that the media is quite geographically challenged. It is probably never ever going to know the difference between Shillong and Sikkim, let alone Nathu La and North Sikkim. Besides, the footage shown looked nothing like Nathu La in recent times. Moreover, snow in August seemed quite implausible. A quick phone call confirmed my hunch: CNN-IBN has a bunch of irresponsible ignorant journalists. Nathu La was as peaceful as ever, with not even flies to swat at that altitude. Troops at Nathu La were themselves probably alerted about this ongoing "skirmish" through their TV sets like the rest of the country!
Once the smugness of my "I-so-knew-it" victory wore off, however, I felt some amount of anger against this section of irresponsible media. If this had been lawsuit-laden America, a bunch of very worried army families could have sued their feckless *bleeps* for causing undue emotional trauma. Even the visual of the fierce Chinese soldiers was old footage shot, and get this: not even at Nathu La.
Here's a note to all you viewership-hungry newsmen: how about some responsible reporting for a change? Check your facts and learn your geography before crying wolf! In your haste to outsmart and one-up rival channels, do ensure you don't come out looking like total jackasses. It will make all our lives just that much easier.
Oh, and if we want drama, we'll watch Colors, thank you very much.
But can't anything be done? How can they carry reports of impending doom? That's a sort of terrorism too! This is disgusting. May be a rival News Channel can pick it up and create some scandal. Thank God,I don't watch TV or even read the news anymore. Can't trust anything these days.
ReplyDeleteSensational journalism is all the rage these days!
ReplyDeleteHey, nothing doing. I'm STILL not watching Colors.
ReplyDelete(Oh, wait, Khatron Ke Khiladi 2 is starting soon...)
But seriously.... These 'Hold-on-to-your-seats-we're-going-to-war' type grabs have already been done to death. The crossover between Indian soaps and Indian news channels is now complete. Please note background whooshing music, jagged edits, and forehead smacking captions, not to mention the clincher... animated recreation of crime/incident/accident/other eyeball grabbing footage. Eeks.
@Bhumika: I guess nothing can be done. C'est la vie!
ReplyDelete@Kaotic: You said it!
@LBV: Hahaha! Yes! The dramatization of news stories complete with all the effects is almost farcical!
I know! It's just plain WRONG what they do. I think the news should go back to being at 9 o clock for an hour, sandwiched between chitrahaar and Tamas.
ReplyDeleteThey just don't know what to do with themselves for 24 hours 7 days a week, ergo - made-up news!
But someone has to do something about this kind of nonsense! Feel like whacking such idiotic journalists, and the news channels that allow it!
ReplyDelete@Shashi: Those were the good old days..the days of innocence!
ReplyDelete@Janie: Reality bites and if anyone tries telling these journos about responsibility, it's going to be deemed preaching to the choir...these are India's so-called top-brass TV journos! :(
@Shashi: Those were the good old days..the days of innocence!
ReplyDelete@Janie: Reality bites and if anyone tries telling these journos about responsibility, it's going to be deemed preaching to the choir...these are India's so-called top-brass TV journos! :(