HI Again,

Just last week I had blogged about the exploitation of the William-Kate story by the media (and done a little exploitation of my own, I have to admit)
Today, however, I am a little more concerned.
Has the news media become IRRESPONSIBLE & IRRELEVANT?

Does it fan the flames of discontent?

Take 3 recent examples.

SHILPA SHETTY – RICHARD GERE

In Bombay for an AIDS awareness campaign, Gere and Shetty were giving a talk to a group of truck drivers, the ones who are supposed to be the biggest carriers & spreaders of the virus. Apart from teaching about prevention they were also informing about the stigmas and myths surrounding the disease. In the process and I guess in the attempt at enlivening the proceedings, Gere did a mock waltz with Shetty and then in the end ‘dipped’ her and gave here a couple of pecks on the cheek. Please note: on the cheek not lips.
The crazy Indian “news” media ran the ‘dip & kiss’ a zillion times till the even crazier Hindu Rashtra Army or whatever else they call themselves these days decided to burn effigies of Gere & Shetty denouncing the demeaning of Indian culture. Like I mentioned in one of my previous blogs, the billion odd Indians were all dropped by storks or whatever else it is that drops children from the sky because sex definitely did not have a role in it.
In the subsequent press conference after refusing, quite admirable, to apologize, Shetty gave the press a piece of her mind and ticked them off by telling them that if they had not aired the clip so often in such an exploitative manner the whole fracas would not have happened.

What is NEWS anyway? Does everything that can be ‘shown’ qualify as news?

THE CRAZY CHO KID – VIRGINIA TECH

By now you must have all heard, read about and seen the Virginia Tech college massacre. In the middle of all this, the crazy kid managed to mail a couple of dozen photographs and rambling videos of himself. The networks were all convinced that this was the ‘scoop’ they always look for and ran the pictures and clips again and again. First of all, it must have been excruciatingly traumatizing to the parents of the victims to see pictures of the crazy guy pointing the barrel of the gun at the camera. It must be giving them nightmares of what their children had faced just before they died. This is all apart from the fact that the crazy psychopath was being almost lionized by the media as a kinda anti-hero. He compared himself to Jesus Christ and the constant video replays have allegedly led to 5 copy-cat threats already.

Again, should everything that is ‘available & shocking’ be aired as NEWS?

JHANVI KAPUR- ABHISHEK BACHCHAN

On the day of the Abhiash (I know, I know….) wedding a floozie (and that’s being kind to her) named Jhanvi Kapur tried to cut her wrists and then tried to file a police report saying that Abhishek had married her and then dumped her. The police, thankfully, did not entertain her request to file a report but did book her for attempted suicide. The press however managed to catch the whole drama on tape and then played it ad nauseam even though it was obvious that the crazy bitch was lying, seeking publicity and quite drunk too. Apart from playing into her hands and giving her the publicity that she so desired they did not even stop to think how irresponsible it was to air such garbage on someone’s wedding day.

Every day my colleague complains that he has forbidden his 8 year old son from picking up the newspaper from the front door because gruesome pictures of the dead in Iraq and other places splashed on the front pages has given the poor kid nightmares.

Is NEWS really news anymore or has it turned into the visual version of a tabloid?

Food for thought huh?