24 Hour News Channels
A couple of days back DISH network added two more Indian channels to our package. "Aaj Tak" and "Headlines Today". So we have three round the clock Indian news channels now. The third being "Sahara Samay".
Most of us still remember the times when the daily 8:40p and 9:30p news in their monotonous format were enough for us. Domestic Politics first (Rajiv and Sonia waving while boarding a plane) then other domestic then International news and then Sports to end with (to be watched only if India won that day or someone took an excellent catch). The news channels are magnitudes better than what we had then since they are not all influenced by the ruling party unlike those in pre-cable era.
BTW, DD was/is so much under government control that I remember they were screening movie "Khoon Bhari Maang" once. Suddently in the second half the movie stopped making sense at times. It felt very disjoint as if they missed a reel. The explanation was in the next day's newspapers. They had cut all the scenes of one actor, Shatrughan Sinha, who plays the "good guy". Reason: he was contesting in the upcoming elections and that could influence the public opinion. Ofcourse he was (and still is not) from the ruling party. I guess it was a valid concern where people have elected Govinda based solely on his star appeal.
Anyway, back on topic: now since you have to report "news" for 24 hrs, you do two things:
1. You repeat the news till the viewers get sick of it. You repeat the news till the viewers get sick of it. You repeat the news till the viewers get sick of it. . well..you get the idea.
2. You create news.
I am quite familiar with #2 here in US. If it is a slow news week, suddenly there are Shark Attacks on the front page. Thanks to GW, we haven't had a slow news week for sometime now and as a result everyone is safe from Sharks.
Indian news channels (I am watching them regularly after a gap of 5 years so cut me some slack) are trying their hands at #2. *Every* news session has a story of some domestic violence in a remote village. If not that, then the other day there was a news when the reporters in a "sting" operation caught a corrupt *clerk* red handed.
In a country where Politicians literally get away with murder we are reporting corrupt clerks?? A guy who probably makes 5-6K a month accepts a bribe and it is national news?? Surely there are other big fish to be caught. There was a nationwide raid by ACB last week. How about giving us the names of the suspects and the list of the properties?
I am not doubting anybody's (news channels) intentions. A huge number of people are working towards making India and world a better place to live. Do we start at the bottom and work our way to the top or clean up the top and work our way to the bottom. We cannot ignore the latter.
BTW, Lalloo Prasad still makes me laugh even before he opens his mouth. Today I saw him holding a real wall-clock with a swinging pendulum and he was telling in his own style how RamVilas Paswan is like that pendulum. "Yeah Paswan bilkul iss Pendulum ki tarah hain.".. ( then he points his finger at the Pendulum and moves it with that).. "Na idhar hain na udhar hain".
[Paswan is like this Pendulum, he is neither here nor there]
I don't know who got that clock for him but it definitely gave me US-Election2004 flashbacks. Rove would have loved this analogy to describe Kerry.
Most of us still remember the times when the daily 8:40p and 9:30p news in their monotonous format were enough for us. Domestic Politics first (Rajiv and Sonia waving while boarding a plane) then other domestic then International news and then Sports to end with (to be watched only if India won that day or someone took an excellent catch). The news channels are magnitudes better than what we had then since they are not all influenced by the ruling party unlike those in pre-cable era.
BTW, DD was/is so much under government control that I remember they were screening movie "Khoon Bhari Maang" once. Suddently in the second half the movie stopped making sense at times. It felt very disjoint as if they missed a reel. The explanation was in the next day's newspapers. They had cut all the scenes of one actor, Shatrughan Sinha, who plays the "good guy". Reason: he was contesting in the upcoming elections and that could influence the public opinion. Ofcourse he was (and still is not) from the ruling party. I guess it was a valid concern where people have elected Govinda based solely on his star appeal.
Anyway, back on topic: now since you have to report "news" for 24 hrs, you do two things:
1. You repeat the news till the viewers get sick of it. You repeat the news till the viewers get sick of it. You repeat the news till the viewers get sick of it. . well..you get the idea.
2. You create news.
I am quite familiar with #2 here in US. If it is a slow news week, suddenly there are Shark Attacks on the front page. Thanks to GW, we haven't had a slow news week for sometime now and as a result everyone is safe from Sharks.
Indian news channels (I am watching them regularly after a gap of 5 years so cut me some slack) are trying their hands at #2. *Every* news session has a story of some domestic violence in a remote village. If not that, then the other day there was a news when the reporters in a "sting" operation caught a corrupt *clerk* red handed.
In a country where Politicians literally get away with murder we are reporting corrupt clerks?? A guy who probably makes 5-6K a month accepts a bribe and it is national news?? Surely there are other big fish to be caught. There was a nationwide raid by ACB last week. How about giving us the names of the suspects and the list of the properties?
I am not doubting anybody's (news channels) intentions. A huge number of people are working towards making India and world a better place to live. Do we start at the bottom and work our way to the top or clean up the top and work our way to the bottom. We cannot ignore the latter.
BTW, Lalloo Prasad still makes me laugh even before he opens his mouth. Today I saw him holding a real wall-clock with a swinging pendulum and he was telling in his own style how RamVilas Paswan is like that pendulum. "Yeah Paswan bilkul iss Pendulum ki tarah hain.".. ( then he points his finger at the Pendulum and moves it with that).. "Na idhar hain na udhar hain".
[Paswan is like this Pendulum, he is neither here nor there]
I don't know who got that clock for him but it definitely gave me US-Election2004 flashbacks. Rove would have loved this analogy to describe Kerry.
posted by Nikhil at 10:03 AM
3 Comments:
Macchan this is scary. You're becoming the suburban Desi uncle now ... with your satellite channel and Aaj Tak! The only thing NOT in your profile is misfotune of geography. Living in New Jersey would've sealed the deal
Well (un)fortunately, I think about these things more than I think about Iron Maiden :).
It is indeed a sad thing that only "desi uncles" are supposed to talk about this. What are people like you and me supposed to do? The *least* we can do is talk about it and that is not enough.
Try watching NDTV - it gives much better quality of news. But, the DD days were fun. The social messages and penetration into the country by NDTV is really good. Aaj Tak definitely is more a masala channel. And Sahara, I have no idea coz I've never watched it.
And Axe, it's alright to think and speak! After all, if people in America hadn't done that in it's formative years, you wouldn't ve been there. The least we can do is speak out and write out .. And for that if a news channel gives a catalyst, that's good!
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