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Dear Indian Media that’s clowning around,
“I’m a dog chasing cars. I wouldn’t know what to do with one if I caught it! I just do things,” said Joker in The Dark Knight.
It reminds me exactly of what you, our media, have done over the years and continue to do. You just wanted to be the first to the Ground Zero. And when you reach there, you don’t know what to do. Instead, you will question a wailing woman about how she feels about her daughter’s death.
The Nepal earthquake is just one more disaster for the Indian media to make a circus of it all over again. A glory moment gone kaput. Was the earthquake in Nepal just an opportunity to add stars to your jaded resumes by reaching first on ground zero? Sabse Tezz. Because that’s the most important bit, isn’t it?
The quest to being the fastest and best in the business, has only ensured you journalists hamming all the time. Some of the younger lot in the media really don’t get to report in the neighbouring countries or even abroad, because of our fractured relations with our neighbours. Nepal was a saving grace, but now that’s gone too, thanks to you. You have made a soap opera out of it to unfold in front of the world. What was it like to walk about asking insensitive questions to those who lost their near and dear ones- just how does one describe the feeling of losing family, of losing blood?
You didn’t stop short of towering India’s contribution to Nepal’s cause, and even asked questions on what the Nepalese government was doing for the survivors. Why? Was Nepal not born out of India? Being inquisitive is one thing, but you are blatantly intrusive, and the sensationalization is despicable!
It is so wrong to portray Nepal as a country that cannot stand on its own and needs India as its crutch. So that stereotyping has to stop, and if you can’t, then being called “presstitutes” won’t ever cease. Any calamity requires humanitarian aid, however big or small the country is. So, to gloat over providing assistance to Nepal is in poor taste.
If not us, any other country would have done the same. And now that Barkha Dutt has made us so savvy about statistics, talking about who has deployed maximum personnel in Nepal, she has just made us seem like megalomaniacs. It is not a school project for God’s sake! We’re not competing to prove that we’re caring human beings.
Nepal needs empathy, not sympathy. The government’s goodwill gesture has gone completely awry. Yes, we’re helping, but how is it going to be fruitful if you, the media, the “voice” of our nation, keep putting your foot in your mouth? (Editor's note : Brother coming to the aid of brother in a calamity like this will never boast about his act or generosity, he will always do it naturally as his duty and not to get a feather in his hat. A journalist will demean the sincerity of the brother's actions and their value by analyzing his motivations under such circumstances.)
Haven’t you learnt enough from making fools of yourselves in the past? Remember the 26/11 and the Radia Tapes? Barkha Dutt speaks to an army General and he seems to suggest that there are no hostages in Hotel Oberoi on the fateful night. A smart thing to say, but the overzealous former Kargil war correspondent calls up the Oberoi manager to confirm if someone is still in there. And he says 100 plus. Good job on inviting Kasab and his friends to have an open season! She doesn’t stop there, does she?
Who is to remind you well read journalists with a degree from Columbia may get you a job and a star on your CV but it won’t buy common sense? And if you lack common sense, you shouldn’t be talking about where the buck should be stopping. You may want to, but you simply don’t deserve to.
It was well clear where the buck was this time. You demand answers from politicians, administrators and scores of other people at the helm for compromising the values (Ed note: and blatantly devaluing) of the positions they hold. What did you do? Worse. You played a power broker between business houses and politicians. And you have a problem being labelled “presstitutes”? Well you were fortunate to have even won a Padma award.
Should I remind you what a spectacle you made of yourselves during the Peshawar attack in 2014? Even when school children were shot dead in Peshawar, all Arnab could do was hastily call a bunch of panelists that included some Pakistanis. Instead of showing solidarity and empathy, all Arnab could do was point out how India has lost scores to terrorism, and how much pain it has cost over the years.
And now that Pakistan has had its own share of tragedy, will it now relook at its policy of abetting terrorism?
Here is a country devastated by killing of youngest of children, and all we are worried about is, if Pakistan would disband terrorist outfits. Where’s your sense of timing? Is the media so insensitive?
Here is a country devastated by killing of youngest of children, and all we are worried about is, if Pakistan would disband terrorist outfits. Where’s your sense of timing? Is the media so insensitive?
Imagine if Pakistan had done the same during the Godhra riots and asked India to reign in their Saffron terrorism? Arnab, for the umpteenth time, the nation doesn’t want to know.
Remember when Modi went to Madison Square? While Modi was in Madison Square Garden, Rajdeep Sardesai was busy instigating the crowd right outside the venue by asking a series of questions on the Gujarat 2002 riots, Modi’s role in it, Modi’s US visa denial & the statistics that only 31% of the people voted for Modi which means majority still do not like him. He went on to call an individual “A**hole”. And when the crowd reacted the way it did, he called it “low class”. Strolling through the corridors of power with who’s and who’s at the helm of affairs doesn’t buy you class either, neither does having a famous surname.
If Rajdeep couldn’t do enough, the next time it was Rana Ayyub talking about Modi’s attire on a recent visit to France. They wished he wore something Indian instead of a Louis Vuitton shawl. Taking cue from his expensive suit worn during Obama’s visit, you question his foreign visits every day but not talk about his intent behind the foreign visits. Instead, you drop names like Louis Vuitton.
I wonder where your priority lies as a news channel! Frankly ladies, most Indians don’t care if the PM even wears an undergarment on not. They care if he means business. Money did buy you Louis Vuitton, it couldn’t buy you the intelligence of objective reporting.
Arnab, Rahul Kanwal, Rajdeep, Sagarika, Rana Ayyub, Barkha Dutt, and the others from your fraternity, while you are busy insulting prominent Indians at the world’s stage and pummeling the collective intelligence of Indians back home, I just have one thing to say. For once the nation doesn’t want to know the garbage you dole out to us every day or doesn’t even care where the buck stops. This country will endure and come out fine without your crony and krappy journalism.
People will continue to consume news even if you do not paint it yellow all over. Have some respect- towards the people you’re featuring and towards your audience. We are not the “things” that give you money, so handle your news a bit more intelligently.
This post was submitted by Sifar Aks.
Journalists in India need to be advised to have some "tameez" when they talk and especially when they talk "over" their guests and raise their own voice. They are now the most disgusting buffoons in the world media.
Journalists in India need to be advised to have some "tameez" when they talk and especially when they talk "over" their guests and raise their own voice. They are now the most disgusting buffoons in the world media.
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