Oh! the drama, the drama!!!  

Posted by Vee

A week of actions, reactions, anger, shock, disgust, distress, debate, speculations after, not much has been achieved spot on. We talked about it in our bedrooms, pondered over it like never before, and conversed over coffee and beer. Do we have any concrete upshot to it? Nothing except the drama which we are all subjected to, thanks to our media. I am not going to add anything which is not been said or debated over since a week of Mumbai Terror. Neither am I going to blame media for what they showed in those sixty hours nor I am getting into another round of blame-game. Few channels have been sent notice for screening the footages that were uncalled for by I&B. I wonder whether that would do any good. For me that’s an open and shut case. My case is not that. The case here is what those few pseudo-intellect, highly acclaimed journo have been doing post-relief of the terrorists attack.

Our very brave Barkha Dutt who covered Kargil in 99 has turned the current episode into a soap-opera. She is melodramatic to the core. Her histrionics are over-the-top and pessimistic to say the least. With a heavily-choked tone of voice, she did nothing but the dramatization of the whole scenario. If you are so choked, ask your camera guy to switch off and cry your heart out. Come on, we all are choked beyond utterance. And if that doesn’t suffice her hysterical ego, she calls a bunch of morons for a debate and asks them equally moronic questions. Abhishek Manu Singhvi, politician from INC joined her show via video conferencing was praised not once but twice by her in one hour of the show. The public present there are for some purpose and not to listen to her tirade twice, “Sir, you are the only politician who turned up, rest all refused citing they might get beaten up. I appreciate you came over.” What the FUCK. People have some questions for him. Give them a chance to ask those instead of your ‘Oh-I-am-so-powerful-yakking’. A couple of questions did put him in dock, yet she was quick enough to bail him out of it with her repeated rants. And then she goes onto cut almost everyone present there with ‘how short of time she is’ in a show which was already reduced to forty minutes because of ‘we will take a short break’. Can’t these guys get done with the Advertisements at least now, at least for one show? I am sure they can. Who the hell is interested in watching those Ads at this time of crisis when we are so full of questions and we want some answer to them? How else we can ask those questions to an authority? How else other than you Barkha? What was the need of reciting 3 minutes of grief-stricken poem written by Prasoon Joshi in between the show? With all fucking respect to Prasoon, I know you are as devastated as any of us; and you poured your heart by writing a poem. But get your own platform to showcase your poetry skills. What irked me was she cut short (a very valid question a gentleman had put forth to the congressman at that very moment) stating, “We have a poem by Prasoon.” God Bless you Barkha.

What with the chosen guest list? I do not fathom what Simi, Kunal, Ness and Ratna were doing there? Bachi Karkaria’s presence made sense till she blabbered “We should not blame the present govt. as this would have happened if any other party was at the center.” Wow, that was some soothing statement. Barkha nods in agreement. How the hell a senior journo can make a statement like that despite knowing there were warnings given to this present govt. in advance. All were buffoons and the biggest was Barkha for choosing such an elite group of morons for her show.

If Barkha is Ekta Kapoor of Media, Arnab Goswami is Shahrukh Khan of Media. He hams, mumbles, gets short of words all the time and the biggest fuck up is he (like SRK) thinks he is the best. All channels do ‘how-this-news-was-first-reported-by-them’ thing but no one harps on it like Arnab. Sometimes I feel he would come out of the television, will held me by collar and say, “Did you get it? Times now brought this piece first to you.” Who cares who showed it first I ask?

Rajdeep Sardesai of CNN-IBN is no saint either. In fact, all of them have given themselves into building news as sensational as possible at the cost of anything and everything. Almost all of them devoted 3/4th of their news on Taj and Trident. How can they forget that it all started from VT (CST) where 50 plus lost their lives at the outset of this atrocious terror strike? Was it because first time elites of this nation were attacked? Were not the lives of those who travel through the locals worth covering more than the chiffon and tuxedo wearing socialites chatting over a sit-down dinner? Why was CST ignored just like that? With all due respect to those who died at Taj and Trident, I request media to act responsible and ask right questions to the right people.

This entry was posted on Thursday, December 04, 2008 and is filed under , . You can leave a response and follow any responses to this entry through the Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom) .
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34 Pointless but Viscous Comments.

Varun  
December 4, 2008 at 4:37 PM

The wiki page of Barkha has more criticisms than awards :).

I received an e-mail yesterday that said "Rajdeep Sardesai and Bharkha Dutt working for NDTV during Gujarat riots got around 5 Million Dollars from Saudi Arabia to cover only Muslim victims, which they did very faithfully... Not a single Hindu family was interviewed or shown on TV whose near and dear ones had been burnt alive, it is
reported".

If this is genuine and if that is how they have become the self proclaimed great journos it is an absolute shame.

Dev  
December 4, 2008 at 4:45 PM

very well observed/said ...it had become complete drama with these people telling each and every details of army moves... if terrorists were watching their show they would have known all the moves made by army ... I also saw the barkha show ...where she asks one muslim fellow to speak in mic 3-4 times ... come on somebody has lost 5 members of his family and you want to make him tell the story louder and louder ... what crap

Anonymous  
December 4, 2008 at 5:26 PM

I agree if media were so concerned they could hav stopped advertisement for that particular episode. BUt all this news coverage too was moolah making exercise for them.

It is said that Brakha had similarly terrorised victims/family during her Kargil stint. And yes, it is really pathetic to see hwo these jorno let go politician in garn of changing subject-due to lack of time. They are veru used to cutting off the questions from a common man.

I read somewhere taht Rajdeep Sardesai spoke about "need to code" while covering such instances. He said this in an interview to foreign publication analysing our media coverage. But Rajdeep's channels went beresk too while reporting. Rajdeep's wife Sagraki Ghose goes ballistic on news on any other common day to sensationalise.

Birds of a feather flock together. :(

Reema  
December 4, 2008 at 6:23 PM

Barkha has explained it on NDTV. Read it here
http://tinyurl.com/6ap5re

Vee  
December 4, 2008 at 7:25 PM

Varun: I do not know the authenticity of the mail which you received,but I cannot deny that it's improbable.

Dev: Exactly and then they counter it by saying, 'they were just doing their job.' Fuck it. If that's your job then you should be ashamed of it.

Poonam: Barkha as I said goes over-the-top. She thinks she is trying to help out, but thats not so. Sagarika and Rajdeep are known to diverge from the topic in question.

Reema: And how shamelessly she defended that. Mind that I am not targeting media or Barkha in particular. For her, I meant the particular show which she hosted. I had some clear questions. Saying 'running short of time', 'unnecessarily reciting some poems there' was absolutely uncalled for. Timing was absolutely wrong for something like that. Cutting short if someone has a point with her 'bloated-ego's rambling is not what we expect.

I read the article and I can say for sure she doesn't make sense at all. She has generalized the whole question. How about the episode 'Deb' mentioned above. What the fuck you mean by 'How are you feeling' and 'Pls speak louder how many of ur family members died' kind of questions AT THIS TIME.

Smita  
December 4, 2008 at 7:30 PM

:)

1st things first....Barkha has relied to all ur ques here

http://www.ndtv.com/convergence/ndtv/mumbaiterrorstrike/Story.aspx?ID=COLEN20080075194&type=opinion

Now coming to your post...I agree with you to quite an extent. But I will also like to add that the news channels you have mentioned are the very channels which had shown some kind of restrain.

We had by chance switched over to Star News and the reporter there was showing the bullet which has grazed past his ear. Can u beat that??? He says he will save it for lifetime.

And then there were channels which were in conversation with terrorists, they were telling us how much liquor or chicken they had.

As it is our media has been over enthusastic & doesn't know where to stop, uspe such an unprecedent event....I just hope that they pull up their socks now and follow a code of conduct this is the least we expect from experienced jurnos..

Vee  
December 4, 2008 at 7:46 PM

Smita: First thing first. I read her defensive comments and she ssays nothing there. I mean she doesn't make sense at all there. She has just taken the whole criticism from one POV.

Do not mention Hindi channels. Everyone has given up on them long long ago. Talking of restrain, not overdoing by showing the bullet like Hindi ones but asking irrelevant questions, passing illogical remarks (the way she said abt Mr. Singhvi) doesn't mean u r restraining. A damage is a damage. Whichever way it is.

I clearly mentioned in the beginning that my post is not about what they showed or not. My post just mentioned how she took all of us granted by her 'getting late', 'appreciating the INC man when it was not required', 'reciting that poem'.... none of this was required...

WhatsInAName  
December 4, 2008 at 9:24 PM

Absolutely spot on, Oxy!
I was really really horrified when Barkha had asked the worried husband of Sabina, the TOI guest editor, caught in Taj, of whom no news was received, questions like "what are you telling your children; are they asking for their mom"
Isnt it heartless! Our media is as sick as the politicians if not worse! I guess, we the public have to rely only on our common sense for any kind of decision making!

Vee  
December 4, 2008 at 9:31 PM

WIAN: Yeah, I remember the incidence u talking of. Their questions are heartless. They might not be in real as they spoke in their defense, but who gives the fuck what they are in real. The point is they are not when they are on TV. I am not gonna buy their defensive points. They crave for TRPs and nothing really matters to them. And be it Times Now, or NDTV or IBN or Hindi ones, they all sailing in same fucking boat.

Ava  
December 4, 2008 at 10:36 PM

I agree with you absolutely about the visual media. They are sick. Period. Journos love glory as much as the next person (politician) as are just as prone to power and money play. The days of the responsible journalism have gone down the drain.. its just a business now.

But helping yourself with glory, in the shade of such a tragedy is absolutely HEINOUS.

Vee  
December 4, 2008 at 10:41 PM

Avdi: Exactly, a heinous crime. That's the point I am making here. All I am saying is they are banking on it. They are making us look like a fool. Media acts as if they empathize with us by showing/talking/acting that way and people fall for it. They are as bad as politicians and those terrorists. Very bad.

Nav  
December 4, 2008 at 11:53 PM

Hey Vivek ! I think the only news channel in fact the the channel's host ..mostly arnab is the one in whose eye one cAN see the pain of this terror attack.

Vee  
December 5, 2008 at 1:35 AM

Nav: Pain in the eyes of host? What are you saying? They might be as teary-eye as me or you but I will never agree they are that when on screen. Watch closely.

I am just done with watching Arnab's interview with INC spokesperson Manish and BJP's spokesperson Mr. Prasad and yet I am disappointed. More with Arnab and media than the politicians.. He fucking screwed up the whole interview.. He hammed hammed and hammed like always... hah!!!

Smita  
December 5, 2008 at 9:47 AM

Oh! I agree with u on that front completely. Discussion at that Point of time was useless....as have said to u earlier Ms Dutt is where she is because she did something drastically diff by going to Kargil and that has made her a glorified Jurno...which she really isn't...

eye-in-sty-in  
December 5, 2008 at 10:35 AM

We Indians are a bunch of insensitive fools. It was really stupid how the media behaved itself throughout the coverage of the attacks. The media persons were right in the MIDDLE of the rescue operations and they were actually adding to the chaos. Everyone wanted to be closer than the next news channel. And this was happening while the broadcast was being watched worldwide. What a nice picture we presented of our country! In light of this misbehaviour, we should slap our wrists and should not show "Incredible India" Ads for atleast an year or till we learn to present ourselves better - whichever comes later!

As much as these so called "elitist" interviewers criticise others for their actions, they should take a peek withing themselves and do some soul searching. Whats the point in asking questions whose answer is known by the viewer. Do they really want to make fools of themselves on live television? Their field must not have too much competition if they can put their foot in their mouth and still get away with it time and time again!

And the fools were showing the action LIVE on TV! No wonder the seige lasted for 3 days. The terrorists would be watching the moves of the soldiers and NSGs and relaying the information back to the terrorists hidden in the buildings.

Makes me wonder which school did they get their journalism degree from!

Anonymous  
December 5, 2008 at 11:34 AM

This whole (ex-)NDTV bunch, (Barkha, Rajdeep and Arnab) specialises in melodrama. Their analysis is sub-standard, the often border on the hysterical, and all they are concerned about is 'exclusive footage/bytes/"....their coverage is often irresponsible, and when questioned, they all start ranting about the 'freedom of the press".

Now, I completely believe in a free press, and I think freedom of the press is one of the most important components of democracy....but do we have to have idiots like these to exploit that freedom?

As for the Hindi channels, words fail me.

Cheers,

Quirky Indian
http://quirkyindian.wordpress.com

Dev  
December 5, 2008 at 2:27 PM

Recently I saw headlines today ... they were doing publicity regarding the attack ... that we were first in coverage of the blasts... we covered this first and that first ...so what should one deduce from all this ...is there any moral responsibility ?? Also they were showing the weakness in air security of India ... they almost chalked out a terror attack plan that could happen ...

I saw some videos on youtube which showed that all these channels are funded by Catholics... and so they have no interest in well being of nation ... they just worry about money ....

Vee  
December 5, 2008 at 5:05 PM

Smita: Rightly said. There weren't many women journos during Kargil and Madam Dutt was the only one. And she is still basking in the glory of that.. And yes.. She isn't a great Journo.

Vee  
December 5, 2008 at 5:54 PM

EISI: I agree. When 9/11 happened, I don't remember seeing any of the television crew saying, "you can see here it happened, these are the people who were rescued" OR asking the people who survived, "how do you feel? do you wanna say anything?" HAH!!! I would have said, "Fuck I feel. And Fuck I wanna say." If ever I come across these Barkhas n Arnabs n Rajdeeps I would surely either slap or spit on their face.

Vee  
December 5, 2008 at 7:19 PM

Quirky: No, we do not have to have them AT ALL. They glorify even the tragedy. Now they have started defending themselves with a nonsensical approach. That puts them alongside politicians.

Dev: Headlines today is nothing but a English version of Aaj Tak. And we all know what Aaj Tak is all about. At this time, there is no point saying 'we did first'. What is required is 'how can we be together and what can be done together', but as you said they do not have moral responsibility I expect nothing from them except taking the advantage out of any damn thing possible. They have proved this time that they work/operate/act just like our politicians. God Bless Our Country.

vimmuuu  
December 6, 2008 at 4:33 AM

You have been awarded and tagged :

http://vimalsparadise.blogspot.com/2008/12/couldnt-come-up-with-title.html

vimmuuu  
December 6, 2008 at 9:12 PM

They are paid to entertain us Oxy Boy !! Our politics, our media personnel, our sports guys, all of them are clowns. sometimes even the business tycoons. All Nautankeys!!!

Crazy Sam  
December 7, 2008 at 11:19 AM

We have all complained about media going too far this time for their minute by minute unveiling of sensitive information to the public in their race to get high TRPs. Enough of the words, now it's the time to act. Musical director, Vishal of Vishal-Shekhar has come up with a petition. We should help him to get as many signatures for this petition so that the courts take cognisance of the petition, make it a PIL (Public Interest Litigation) so that things can move faster.

This is the link for the article: http://www.rediff.com/movies/2008/dec/02mumattacks-vishal-versus-the-news-channels.htm
And this is the website to sign the petition: http://smallchange.in/

Sign and spread these links in every way you can!

Anonymous  
December 7, 2008 at 4:54 PM

I am one of the few fortunate people who did not undergo the torture. I was only referring the internet for updates. Somehow I could not understand why live feeds were allowed on the television in the first place.
But, after the attack was over, I think the channels are doing a good job of keeping the anger alive. The are scratching out each and every thing on which they can lay their hands.

Smita  
December 8, 2008 at 2:55 PM

You can find somethign for you out here..

http://books-life-n-more.blogspot.com/2008/12/when-its-khiccdi-post.html

Anonymous  
December 9, 2008 at 10:25 AM

LOL
If Barkha is Ekta Kapoor of Media, Arnab Goswami is Shahrukh Khan of Media. He hams, mumbles, gets short of words all the time and the biggest fuck up is he (like SRK) thinks he is the best.
U have made so serious issue soundtoo funny ,,

but i agree ...
news channels over do sometimes. . and some times shows like the big fight and we the people gets too annoying ..
rightly said ..
the guests are all morons their barking at each other like wild dogs

Anonymous  
December 9, 2008 at 11:24 AM

Media is the mirror which reflects the happenings in the world !

They are our brave heroes , a genre of a kind , who reach the hot spots to reveal the true story !

Hats off to the media heroes who battle with the bullets !

Vee  
December 9, 2008 at 3:44 PM

Vimmuuu: Boy, I will do the needful soon.

Oh u bet. Nautankees of first (dis)order...

Sam: Yes, I did that long back. It came in mail. Thanks

Amit: I too like many do not understand why few things were shown on TV. And more than that why the fuck media took advantage of it and tried to bank on the sympathy factor. FUCK IT.

Smita: I will check that soon.

Arvind: I swear yaar. Media forgets where to draw the line. Saale sab TRP ke bhookhe hain.

Omnamohshiva: Oh yea? Well, I too agree to it and also believe in the freedom of press.

And for the second point, of course they reach the spot to reveal the story. But at what cost? Showing the gruesome happenings and later asking the kin, 'aapko kaisa lag raha hai?' and then they overdo their own histrionics by going in all possible tangents.

Hats off to them for making us fool every time.

vimmuuu  
December 9, 2008 at 4:26 PM

and you have been awarded once more :

http://vimalsparadise.blogspot.com/2008/12/and-one-more-award.html

Rohit Sharma  
December 9, 2008 at 10:21 PM

I watch News Channels Flat 20 minutes a day as thats more then enough I can jhelo in a day.

I believe 9XM and movie channels are better then news anyday.

Nothings is going to happen by you and me checking out news throughout the day too :)

The media right now in India is totally gone to Dogs.
They are no better then those news papers who are back to back bollywoodians as thats the only thing which sells right now.

But its indeed good to read one of us putting his points foward in the most saner way.

Vee  
December 9, 2008 at 10:35 PM

Rohit: Exactly. We have been made fools like never before. There wasn't a hope when it came to politicians. Jo bachi khuci hope thi media se wo bhi rafoochakkar.

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