Mad-den-ning News!!

The quality of the “breaking news” flashing on the news channels, which by itself have multiplied to become innumerable, seems to be degrading with time. The most famous amongst all in the race is none other than “India TV”. One of other days, I was amazed to see a report featuring dogs as a regular visitor to a temple during the “evening prayers”. And guess what, the anchor of that show was the one and only, Mr. Rajat Sharma.

Then, there was another report; I can easily recall which showcased the plight of Sanjay Dutt, our beloved actor (his popularity charts have been soaring ever since his arrest) in jail. The report covered what he was wearing, what he was eating, how he was behaving etc. etc. (I don’t know how many of us give a damn shit to know that.) But the funniest part of the report was that he snored loudly at night as told to the reporter by Sanju’s accomplices in jail.

Next in the row comes the self acclaimed “sabse tez” news channel, yes you got it right, Aaj Tak. One of the breaking news that I happened to watch on this one was our FM, Mr. Chidambaram got unsolicited calls for cards, phones etc. from here, there and everywhere. The footage included a cartoon of Mr. Chidambaram talking on the cell phone, zooming into him from various angles, giving the viewers an impression as if they are watching a K-soap than a news channel. They made a great hype about the news and it was aired in their primetime as “Break-ing news”. Another programme which they regularly telecast is “Special Report” wherein what I watched today was last thing anybody would prefer watching. They constructed a series of events as to how things went when Salman’s sister went to jail to tie Rakhi on his hand. How can you forget the famous Nokia “BL-5C” battery news which has given such channels a reason to flash breaking news of mobile blasts, every now and then.

I recall the campaign that was started by “93.5 RED FM” which involved a radio advertisement directed to bring such news channel on track. The ad involved a news reader providing info on the status of a pregnant black hen and the reader repeatedly mentioned that their reporter has been covering the news for the last 4 days and the hen has been diagnosed to lay more than 10 eggs. It was a fabulous effort to teach a lesson to such channels.

In my opinion, there should be a sanity check on the content going on air through such channels. When we say that we are a democratic country, we acknowledge that the press has a right of freedom of expression. However, at the same time, it should be ensured that such a right is not taken for a ride and there should be a regulatory body to monitor the quality of the content. Otherwise, the viewers like me, will continue our careless channel hopper behavior towards such channels.