Breaking News : WE -The people to be blamed

Today I received a mail forwarded by my friend having screenshots of the “Breaking News” from our own most cherished news channel “AAJ TAK” . I was really stunned by looking at the headlines and just laughed a lot. I am very sure we all will feel the same for the headlines. Oh ..You really want to know the headlines ..then here they are ..

1- “Rahul ne khaya Poori , Sabji” ( Rahul took poori and curry)
2- “Amitabh ko lagi Thand” (Amitabh got a bad cold)
3- “Commissioner ka kutta mila …char din se tha lapata” (Commissioner’s dog found , was missing for four days)
4- “Chazze pe baithi billo rani .. ”
5- “Aiswarya ne kiya Surya ki pooja ” (Aishwarya offered prayer to Sun)

Yes friends, this is true..and this is the flashing news headlines on the primetime news bulletine …So can really imagine the condition of news bulletines on other slots.. I was really curious to check what is the status of other news channels ..In India , we really have quite a lot of News Channel and I am pretty much a news surfing person (mostly glued to the news channels once get a chance) and had quite a lot of favourite news channels and media personalities … I checked out for AAJ TAK, NDTV – India (The channel I really admired because of the good journalism and media persons associated with it such as Pranay Roy , Rajdeep Sardesai, Barkha Dutt , Pankaj Pachauri to name a few ) . And trust me , the result is equally shocking . The news channels really looked like any other entertainment channel and possibly worse than it. Well, what was really frustrating is a program called “Sanshani” on AAJ TAK , in which a group of journalists went with camera and all to an old house (haveli) in some village to search for a ghost … and equally frustrating is the anchor ..who himself was not sounding less than a ghost.. they stayed there over night with flash light ..with all kind of non-sense background scores , commentries etc . etc. and in the morning they concluded possibly it was a rumour or if they believe the public , then possibly their camera could not capture the ghost … AH..I was just like pulling my hair all along …

I could easily go back to my childhood days, when along with my father (who also happens to be a news channle freak ..possibly I inheritated the habit from him) used to see the Doordarshan news in Hindi and English both . And they actually used to be pure news ( ofcourse they were a bit biassed for the govt) . But we could really listen to pure news ..and then on Friday at 10:30 PM ( If I still remember it correct) there used to be a program called “The World This week – with Pranay Roy” . On Saturday, there used to be a program from Vinod Dua called “Parakh” …Pure news ..Pure analysis. And then it had programs like Siddharth Kak’s “Surabhi” which used to carry cultural news across the country (Along with the sparklling Smile from my all time favourite Renuka Sahane ..her Smile just kills.. ) They were really educative ..

Then came the days of satellite private channels and the days of Doordarshan were numbered. I really would say ZEE Tv had brought a revolution in journalism with rajat Sharma’s “AAP KI ADALAT” . Straight – unbiassed questions to all those who are accountable to public. Public could easily connect to the program..and no wonder it was an overnight success. It followed with witty journalism from Pranay Roy (NDTV India) , Rajdeep Sardesai , Barkha Dutt , Veer Sanghvi , Prabhu Chawla etc. But then, after witnessing those growth in indian journalism , today’s news channel content are really frustrating.

But, after sometimes when I thought , what is really changed ? The same media personalities are still available ..and its not like their wittiness , intelligence has already died down .. WHO needs to be blamed then ? Is it not WE – The public are to be blamed for..The news channel telecast such news, because the public likes it ..Its the simple formula of Demand –Supply . Why should we really complain when we make these programs a hit …we provide them better TRPs ..So why should not the news channels come up with such programs and improbve its business ? And also worth mentioning here is that these news channels were promising when they were floated new .. AAJ TAK , NDTV ( special mention as this still has maintained some standard of a news channel) channels were really worthy channels once.Today if they are forced to keep their intelligence in the back seat and are striving for good TRPs , then to some extent WE need to share the blame .. Its pretty an irony that WE make those programs a hit and later we laugh at it …

Well , It is really the responsibilty of all of us along with the news channels and I just hope we realize it fast … So that sometimes we can surf any news channel for pure news free from breaking news of what happened in Bachchan’s house hold , where the hell the dog of commissioner had been missing ..!!!! We really wish Amitabh to recover from cold,Aishwarya to get all the blessing from all God , we really wish luck to rahul ..But certainly they are not the issues of national interest to find place in national news channels on prime time …

So, at the end the favourite tagline of us ,
“TOGETHER WE CAN AND WE WILL MAKE THE DIFFERENCE”