Breaking News

Every morning before leaving for office I watch Tv for news. Within half an hour I try to catch up with happenings in and around the world. Most of the channels are good in giving crisp news in morning like Subah Fatafat, 100 khabarein 5 min, Superfast news etc. Logic is that in short time you get to view lots of news. When I come back to home at night I surf news channels again. I usually see English news channels as they are bit less on dramatics and more on facts as compared to Hindi News Channel. Hindi news channels exaggerate a lot. Sometimes the news are utter nonsense. Of Hindi news channels NDTV is bearable.

I have also stopped listening to debates long back. I do not listen to debates on news channels unless there is good discussion, most of the time there is none. Arnab Goswami is uncrowned king of television debates. He is the supereme authority .... who decides what is right and what is not. No matter what the guests say during the debate he gives verdict whether they are right or wrong as per his wish. My Dad is a fan of Arnab where as I (and many people) consider him Mallika Sherawat of TV news. He knows how to create controversy, make antics, exagerrate views with theatrics and put words in mouth of guest speakers. There is brilliant article in Caravan Magazine (Fast and Furious) about his rash blind ambition to keep Times Now at top in TRP.

There was great buzz created around a month back when Editors of Zee News were sent to jail on allegations of extortion charges alleged by Navin Jindal who is Congress MP and promoter of Jindal Power and Steel. Navin Jindal told media that during a sting operation Zee News Editors demanded 100 Crores in advertisement deal in lieu of which Zee News will down play or stop media campaign against him. Footage from hidden cam was shown to media where Zee News Editor and its Business heads were negotiating a deal. No matter how Zee News defended this later, the dirty corrupt world of news media was thrown open in public. Issue of paid news and lobbying by senior journalists including Vir Sanghavi has already been brought in public.

Later Zee News Editor Sudhir Chaudhary was thrown out of the BEA (Broadcast Editors Association). Wrongdoing was again alleged in this (Read Here). How come peers throw out an Editor? Peers who are also Competitors.

Another article in Caravan Magazine brilliantly points out the issue of ethics in media (Read: On the Success of Ethics).