“Hindi news channels are the worst in the world.”

“Hindi news channels are like the a-hole of the media, dude”.

I’m sure you’ve heard mutations of these statements and if I were to switch on my Realistic, some of you might endorse the view too. At the television news channel boom in my teenage years, I heard channels like Aaj Tak welcomed like there was a new baby in town. Everyone shook their metaphorical hands and said their congratulations. India had 24X7 news. India gave birth to a young ‘un. And here we are in 2009, a few years later, where everything (at least around me and my social circle) seems to be running desperately in a downward spiral.

So what happened between then and now? Why have we,  the educated elite, forsaken the child we welcomed only years ago?

If you don’t intend to read through this article, I’ll short circuit the “answer” and tell you first off, this article isn’t an answer to that question. The question that punctuates the end of the last paragraph is more student-research paper training than a “youth”ful post-adolescent answer to the whole world’s problems. I have never been able to answer that question, and perhaps haven’t found the need to. No one asked ME questions. I’m a student, at English Lit at that, so you’re almost trained to mouth “In life, there is no one answer” over and over when you’re caught in a quarry. But it interests me, this concept of the vigil. What breaks my heart is that we seem to have forgotten to keep a little hope and faith in our pockets, for the long run.

I’m not exactly a crusader for the Indian media. But I suppose I’m not prejudiced in that I’m indifferent to all equally. Hindi, English. Print remains my favourite though, because of the old school charm and “integrity” that I somehow have been conditioned into buying. But what I really want to see, is how we play this out. Will in two months, TheVigil have news spreads that are ONLY scathing in nature? Sometimes that is the need of the hour, agreed. Will it even strike any of us, that TheVigil, supposedly, for the record, deems to be a “public scrutiny” portal- but the findings of that scrutiny can be punished, but more importantly rewarded.

I think finally this article has a little focus- it’s a scrutiny of TheVigil. Because as much as I wish this concept works out, the fast-paced rating for every piece of news you want to rate — truly giving you the power – it has more chances to derail into a venomous, almost malicious name-calling caricature of what it set out to be. So far, the site hasn’t really seen a piece that has vociferously commended any piece of news. Do we need to take that important step back and wonder if we’re simply tuning ourselves to watch out for the horribly done, pasty faced news?

Hopefully, it doesn’t. Hopefully, in two months, TheVigil will have at least a few articles that commend SOMETHING even averagely well done in the media — any form. Not because the criticism isn’t helping, hey, the name-calling makes for some hilarious, witty articles! But sometimes, we need that little bit of hope and vested care to pull everyone aloft. The eventuality of TheVigil, I’m presuming, is to bring about a change.

All I’m saying is, I hope people don’t lose sight of the rarer good, in this cesspool of bad.It’s like a disease that your child has, and you refuse to acknowledge, treat or diagnose, and instead turn him to the corner and wonder why the hell there is a rotting smell in the room. You refuse to change his diapers. But you will call your friends, and point at that baby and say “Chee!”.

Administrator’s note:

Dear Shruti,

Thank you for your very valid criticism of TheVigil as it stands now. I am hoping that with more concerned consumers such as you participating in this venture, the bad-good balance is corrected to the extent possible. It’s not the purpose of TheVigil to whine all the time. Be that as it may, I sincerely hope News Television changes stripes to make our jobs easier than to find a parent who is unwilling to change their baby’s nappy. 

– B V Rao

As an avid, and perhaps guilty reader of HT City and DT- there’s a trend I’ve noticed by the way of gradual percolation in the subconscious [ The guilt, mind you, comes from reading HT City and DT over the national news].

What I noticed at 14-15 in DT, has now blatantly appeared in HT City. Repeated articles. In the same paper. TOI used to run the same articles on the International page in the main paper as the one on it’s last page on DT. I wonder if that still happens now, since I hardly read the main paper anymore.

Case in point however: HT City September 26th, 2009. Page 12 shows only two international entertainment pieces, titled “Angie’s going ultra slim to woo Pitt” and “Megan’s outfits on auction”. Page 10, has the same two articles, retitled as “Shrinking for Brad” and “Megan’s leather biker suit, hot pants on sale”.

The reader isn’t stupid. This isn’t a one time thing. I don’t understand why they have to run the same piece in the SAME paper. Atleast DT did us the intellectual favour of printing it once in the main and once in the supplement, although both papers are equally guilty, time and again of doing this. Does every page have it’s own team that has ugly turf wars which spiral into this duplicacy? Does every page team randomly throw darts at a big board and print whatever the dart hits? Or is it a snide joke at the reader’s expense? I’m not loffing!

I love my entertainment news. I love it in all mediums. I just don’t think I need it twice. I think I get it the first time round itself.

Throughout my journalistic career, I often found my father (now 80) coming up with some innovative story ideas and observations. Now settled in the serene vineyards around Nasik, around 200 km from Mumbai, I’m often amazed with the jest with which he watches news channels. Why, on earth? “It’s complete entertainment,” comes the answer as he sips his favourite beer.

“How insulting,” I screamed in defence of my community. “Newsgathering and meeting deadlines is hard work.”

“It shows, huh!” that soft reply from behind the big swinging chair.

So I switch on the box to see if things are so bad. It’s the eternal M F Husain debate on CNN-IBN. The ever aggressive Sagarika Ghose fired the first salvo at senior artist Anjalie Ela Menon – “Can the Husain issue be seen an attack on freedom of expression?”

“No, not all. We have gone and protested against everyone…”

Bad timing, I guess…

Next in the line of fire – BJP’s Seshadri Chari, who for the channel represented  all that was fanatical Hindu. Chari played it smart. He remained cool, calm and refused to be provoked. “Forget what the VHP and Bajrang Dal have said (really?!). The perception is that he has painted certain Hindu Gods and Goddesses in the nude. So now it is for MF Husain to come and explain it. When he was asked why he painted Hitler in the nude he had said those whom he hates and those whom he wants to humiliate he paints them in the nude. This is what he had said in an interview.”

No firecrackers here, too. Enter the fiesty Jayanthi Natarajan, Congress spokeswoman. Will the Home Ministry support Husain now, especially since no police protection was given for Husain when organisers wanted him to attend the India Art Summit. “I don’t think it is the highest on our list of priorities at the moment given the acts of terror against the country. We have considerable respect for Husain’s artistic oeuvre, as you put it. But it is simply not the job of the government in my view.”

Here we go…screams of protests, shock make Ms Natarajan further angry. She wants to be heard and completely. So the channel gives her further time to clarify her own statement – terrorism is priority and not art summit. But the Congress spokesperson is not going to take the protest to her clarification lying down. Amidst chaos and noise, Ghose says her producer is asking her to take a break or face dire consequences.

Unfortunately, as it happens in most TV debates, the panelists who are supposed to throw light on the controversy, never get enough time. Here too, Husain’s lawyer Akhil Sibal made a few valid points, but time ran out. Is there any legal impediment stopping Husain to come back? What’s status of his case? And most importantly, does HE want to come back? Tough luck for these querries.

The final shot came from Anjalie Ela Menon, “We really don’t care whether he is on this soil or not. We all go to meet him and I have had a nice ride in his red Ferrari. The world has shrunk so it doesn’t really matter whether he is here or there. If you think he is unhappy then you all are sadly mistaken.”

This is the way debates should end. With a question – why are we debating this subject at all? Amen…