The battle of 'news' channels

Someone asked me the other day about how one can control the on-going Telangana agitation and pro Andhra agitation. I had a simple answer – ban coverage of the agitation on the television and all the fake agitators will disappear, and only the genuine ones will survive to make their mark. Day in and day out, for the last few weeks we have been badgered with new bulletins, talk shows, live updates on the situation in the state.

Most of the Telugu news channels are owned by crooks and contractors who want to gain an element of credibility. How will police dare arrest an owner of a news channel even he has defrauded a bank or submitted fake bills for roads that were never laid. Unlike a Vinit Jain, Prannnoy Roy or Rajdeep Sardesai, none of our Telugu News channels are owned by a media professionals. And that shows in their bent of reporting which ranges from lady news readers who dress up like Beyonce but spell Zoo as Joo. Then are the correspondents in the districts who look as if they have just got up from sleep, unkempt and atrocious dress sense and worse their diction and way of asking question shows up.

There was one station recently which was doing a live hook up from a Cinema theatre trying to gauge the reactions of the fans as they were coming out after the watching the movie. Unfortunately, the rookie of a reporter did not know that he was live and went on to brief the person whom was supposed to ask the questions what he was supposed to answer.”Say, the movie is super duper hot, the dances are great and fights are mind blowing.” But the man who was supposed to answer was about to enter the theatre to watch the movie and blurted out “Sir, but I am yet to watch the movie”. But the reporter refused to give up. “Only both of us know that, the viewers don’t know that”. Bad luck that ran live till someone in the studio realized the put on show was a blunder.

The coverage of the on-going agitation in the state between the pro and anti Telangana camps was pathetic. It was downright hollow, with the correspondents forcing the protesters to say what they did not want to say. One gem, “What do you have say about this huge crowd that is behind you supporting the agitation?” Bad luck again, all the guys who were standing behind the poor soul ran towards someone who was handing out biryani packets near a ten where some leaders were on a ‘fast unto death’. In another case Lagdapati Rajgopal was desperately trying to hide a mineral water bottle behind the pillow on the stage where he was also on a fast unto death.

Most of the demonstration start only once the organizers have ensured that all the news channels are there and ready to say “Action!”. If this is the way things are going to continue, then the day is not far off when a riot will be set off by the channels who are scared of their plunging TRPs. Watch this space, sorry ‘idiot box’.