The Media Hype in India - Crying Wolf...

I wake up every morning to be greeted by The Hindu - its a habit and I believe a good one. As one of the last remaining newspapers in the world that understands its role in society - dissemination factual information and in depth analysis - not rumor mongering or silly papparazzi stuff....I have always loved their editorial integrity and over the years come to believe - if The Hindu says it, it is true.

This morning I was greeted by a piquant catchline: Exclusive and under it a dramatic headline: 

Mumbai massacre story unfolds in terrorist’s interrogation

It caught my eye, I was all excited and began devouring the news. As I read line after line, my excitement increased, I was sub-consciously waiting for the punchline, the conclusion, the damning evidence.......till I started despairing...the corner of my eye could see the end of the article and the punchline hadnt arrived yet, three lines to go, two, one, 12 words, 7, 3.....blob, plup, plimmmmm (those were the sounds of hope crashing in my head). 

That was deflating for a few minutes - then I started wondering what just happened.......since the story broke out, we Indians have been fed a steady dose of sensational audio, video - propoganda, rumors, news, views all mixed in an unsteady broth ripe for TRPs - switch on a channel and you have anchors screaming dramatic mouthfuls - India SUMMONS Pak minister, terrorists plan to BLOW UP the Taj, are the English players COWARDS?.....websites like timesofindia and rediff  thrive on dramatic headlines - rediff proclaimed all knowingly within 24 hours of the attacks - IT IS LASHKAR.....note the stress on the word IS - which denotes fact.......indeed radio shows, TV shows, newspapers everyone had the whole story mapped out - everyone knew exactly when the fellos purportedly left Karachi, when they hijacked an Indian fishing boat, when they landed in colaba, accosted by nosy beach dwellers who were promptly shooed away and then the firings happened......the story doesnt stop there - we have painstaking sagas of people that we there - eyewitness accounts - " I took the phone off a dead body and answered it" screamed a headline in rediff yesterday......news channels are even worse - story is large sums of money and minutes of fame have lured tens of survivors into the studios - for veritable interrogation sessions:

" So how did you feel when the terrorists came in" says the doe eyed anchor all souped in emotion....."Well, I dont know, I wasnt on the same floor....I heard some vague noise and didnt make much of it...then the hotel staff called and said there's a terrorist attack, stay in your room, so I did"

"Well, that was so brave......but then you would have been frightened? I;m sure you were apprehensive? what were your thoughts?"

" See honestly I didnt know what to think and as I said before, the terrorists and noise wasnt on my floor, so I just locked the door and waited"

"Oh Wow...that is inspiring....but tell us - were you not scared at all? I'm sure your thoughts were of your loved ones...."

Grrrrr - stop it. Gosh enough.......lets stop the crap please......

We have been on such emotional overdrive it seemed like The Hindu was dead on arrival....indeed it had no chance - did it?

Why dont our media stop this emotional carnage and start focussing on substance for a while. How many have asked the right questions? what about focussing on the things that need to done to make our cities safe?, how about getting educated people out to vote?, how about a unilateral moratorium on speculative stroies and focussing only on facts......

We as a country have a lot to achieve - especially given the failing and flailing nations around us...we as a nation and our media especially has to bear that responsibility.....fine its about TRPs, but its also about responsibility, its also about the invisible hippocratic oath a journalist is expected to live by.....lets get our respect for media back.

I like The Hindu even more now. I respect their factual reporting ever more now and wish all media houses had the guts to follow them.