Started with very creative and positive ideas. Degenerated to a stray occasional reflections on news channels by journalists

Monday, July 30, 2007

Whatever....

Didn’t get time to write. Now that I am set to write I realise that there is not much to be written either. The Sniper is quiet. Not subdued though -while we continue parading our senselessness.

After all that pomp and show and show of ritual obeisance to ‘journalistic spirit’ etc on Goenka Memorial Debate yesterday (more on this later) as shown on NDTV, everybody is back to playing the sales guy's games.

Yesterdays CNN- IBN 's evening news (this is on a day when eight protestors, demanding land for the poor at Mudigonda village in AP were killed by police firing and documented brutality in blood and gore and more was available to all channels) ok... the news started like this -- “The big story this evening is that Dr Haneef Whatever is returning to India from Brisbane”....wow!! The world belongs to and exists only in the metro's middle class concerns or perhaps it exists only in the advertiser’s sales strategy. Subdue the viewer in passivity and let encoded messages be decoded in dead brains. When the moment to face the truth arrived, nonchalance was amazing. The swollen faced, somewhat haggard and tired looking anchor read detached, condescending sentences (who wrote the anchor script btw), which seem to be coming out of another world, a world -Where the mind is without fear and the booze bottle is held high. Where poverty and struggle for survival exist only in books. Where, for each hungry voice that dares speak, there is a bullet bought off my tax returns.

The approach, the words, the emphasis - insensitivity and utter failure in situating the news item in its immediate or wider social context or in realising the meanings of events within the matrix of a democratic order, was really insulting. After much condescension and confusion, he wrapped up the story like this “Ok, I hope everything is under control now”. And that patronizing smile on a very patriarchal face – beautiful! splendid!! He moves on.

Great! Good show.

The mystery behind recruitments in media is over. Pick the right kind of people and you reduce the possibility of news interfering with sanitary pads and shaving cream advertisements and their target audience’s affectionate attention.

The BIG story THAT EVENING was about national indignation – that the police in a distant land were trying to question an Indian cousin of two UK terrorists. Unfairly, of course. How dare their police act like this? CNN - IBN was hurt and worried and its nostrils flaring in rage and challenge. What? What did u say? Eight Indians were killed, shot dead by the police in our own country and many more injured, bullets lodged in their bodies …oh! That! There is always trouble there with these peasants and their lands –aren’t you sick of their fights? That keeps happening. If police didn’t kill them- driven by hunger, debt and hopelessness, suffocated by oppressive weight of more agony and bleaker future, they would have killed themselves. Don’t you read newspapers? Or are you one of those who only watch news channels and believe the world is about sex scandals, glorified petty crimes, personal micro issues discussed 'live' for hours, extremely skewed story angles, one-sided truth-go-to-hell narratives, aspiring models throwing 'revealed-rape' charges which - we are told - shame the nation, society, god, aliens, everything and everyone; naïve anchors advising and sermonising the world on just about anything and everything. The world, you think, is about a vocabulary-less, content-less exhausting narration that exasperates you into tired passivity, chases you channel after channel until finally gored, molested and tortured you submit your judgments to the painted faces and obscenity of the wordless sounds.

Suddenly, an idea overtakes from the wrong side --- No, No. There is more to the world than that. There is ‘news’ beyond the media (or besides it). There is a world beyond this manufactured cosmetic hyper-reality, twisted and manipulated to manipulate an unsteady
class with an aching conscience and lost in conflicts of meanings and conflicting signs.Swift. But rash driving. Its gone. The path ahead is clear now.

You see this Dr Haneef Whatever issue is different stuff altogether. Dr.Haneef Whatever was questioned and kept in detention. He was asked questions about his relations and relatives, questioned about his bank accounts and his trips to London. Abhorring! Imagine the cruelty, trauma and pain that Dr Haneef Whatever had to suffer.

These streaks! A memory wafer sails over.Have you seen the footage? The scene of the firing incident, it was along a road that curved slightly.

Cut to - Mudigonda in AP, the peasants, dead woman and children. Twisted and motionless. Frozen in morbid terror as if afraid to speak out any more. Bodies lying still on the bloodied streets where once life roamed; where till the other day were songs of protest and hope, and gathering of village folk. Men and women deliberated on their concerns while keeping a watchful eye on their children who played nearby- huddled in groups, they discussed their daily toil, about land usurped by builders and miners, about another famine and high prices of kerosene, missing schools and doctors ….tchch! You are missing the point. The point is that there was no questioning, they were not detained and none of them had ever even gone to London, most of them never had any bank accounts.

What questions can you ask them anyway? You see, how can you compare the two news items? Ridiculous, to even raise such queries. Unlike Dr Haneef Whatever, none of these peasants –these fathers and mothers and wives and husbands and children, who lie dead today, silenced - were ever questioned. Silenced, but never questioned.

If you don’t ask questions where is the need for answers? And who cares as long as…well…as the CNN-IBN anchor hoped “the situation is under control”. (Noticed something? There are too many as’ses in the last line). Whatever. Whatever it takes.

7 comments:

Anonymous said...
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
Anonymous said...

hmmm... So is ***** back in the scene?? Whats with SD and anthropology these days? Some very dangerous intent there. Watch out.

Whatever, brilliant piece. lol. Nice take on that word. It says it all. And after this sound beating, lets head towards press club and re-glorify ourselves.

Anonymous said...

Unlike promised this has become yet another cathartic post. Where is the agenda?
Where is the forum for discussion on issues confronting media?
O! venerated Lazy Hound! When will you find time to do it?

Anonymous said...

It will take more...more than just feeling passionately about it and writing in comments when we do get time in this crazy marathon called life (where the race ends mostly before the finishing line).
It will take the gut wrenching courage which is needed to grasp a red hot iron rod and bend it to our will, give it a shape and meaning....and maybe a purpose, istead of the straight nothingness.....monotonous meaninglessness it stretches itself into. It might burn the palm that grasps it....but it will be worth it at least to SEE the wining post before the race ends for any of us.
Do keep heating up the iron....

Anonymous said...

Shame on Indian Media??? Really what a shame...

By the time u guys read this news, the body of Major Manish Pitambare,
who was shot dead at Anantnag, would have been cremated with full
military honors.

On Tuesday, this news swept across all the news channels 'Sanjay Dutt
relieved by court'. 'Sirf Munna not a bhai' '13 saal ka vanvaas
khatam' 'although found guilty for possession of armory, Sanjay can
breath sigh of relief as all the TADA charges against him are
withdrawn' Then many personalities like Salman Khan said 'He is a good
person. We knew he will come out clean'. Mr Big B said "Dutt's family
and our family have relations for years he's a good kid. He is like
elder brother to Abhishek". His sister Priya Dutt said "we can sleep
well tonight. It's a great relief"

In other news, Parliament was mad at Indian team for performing bad;
Greg Chappell said something; Shah Rukh Khan replaces Amitabh in KBC
and other such stuff. But most of the emphasis was given on Sanjay
Dutt's "phoenix like" comeback from the ashes of terrorist charges.
Surfing through the channels, one news on BBC startled me. It read
"Hisbul Mujahidin's most wanted terrorist 'Sohel Faisal' killed in
Anantnag , India . Indian Major leading the operation lost his life in
the process. Four others are injured.


It was past midnight , I started visiting the stupid Indian channels,
but Sanjay Dutt was still ruling. They were telling how Sanjay pleaded
to the court saying 'I'm the sole bread earner for my family', 'I have
a daughter who is studying in US' and so on. Then they showed how
Sanjay was not wearing his lucky blue shirt while he was hearing the
verdict and also how he went to every temple and prayed for the last
few months. A suspect in Mumbai bomb blasts, convicted under armory
act...was being transformed into a hero.

Sure Sanjay Dutt has a daughter; Sure he did not do any terrorist
activity. Possessing an AK47 is considered too elementary in terrorist
community and also one who possesses an AK47 has a right to possess a
pistol so that again is not such a big crime; Sure Sanjay Dutt went to
all the temples;
Sure he did a lot of Gandhigiri but then........ ...

Major Manish H Pitambare got the information from his sources about
the terrorists' whereabouts. Wasting no time he attacked the camp,
killed Hisbul Mujahidin's supremo and in the process lost his life to
the bullets fired from an AK47. He is survived by a wife and daughter
(just like Sanjay Dutt) who's only 18 months old.

Major Manish never said 'I have a daughter' before he took the
decision to attack the terrorists in the darkest of nights. He never
thought about having a family and he being the bread earner. No news
channel covered this since they were too busy hyping a former drug
addict, a suspect who's linked to bomb blasts which killed hundreds.
Their aim was to show how he defied the TADA charges and they were so
successful that his conviction in possession of armory had no meaning.
They also concluded that his parents in heaven must be happy and proud
of him.

Parents of Major Manish are still living and they have to live rest of
their lives without their beloved son. His daughter won't ever see her
daddy again.


So guys, please forward this message around so that the media knows
which news to give importance, as it is a shame for us since this Army
Major's death news was given by a foreign TV channel!!!

InSearchOfNews said...

Shame on Indian Media??? Really what a shame...

By the time u guys read this news, the body of Major Manish Pitambare,
who was shot dead at Anantnag, would have been cremated with full
military honors.

On Tuesday, this news swept across all the news channels 'Sanjay Dutt
relieved by court'. 'Sirf Munna not a bhai' '13 saal ka vanvaas
khatam' 'although found guilty for possession of armory, Sanjay can
breath sigh of relief as all the TADA charges against him are
withdrawn' Then many personalities like Salman Khan said 'He is a good
person. We knew he will come out clean'. Mr Big B said "Dutt's family
and our family have relations for years he's a good kid. He is like
elder brother to Abhishek". His sister Priya Dutt said "we can sleep
well tonight. It's a great relief"

In other news, Parliament was mad at Indian team for performing bad;
Greg Chappell said something; Shah Rukh Khan replaces Amitabh in KBC
and other such stuff. But most of the emphasis was given on Sanjay
Dutt's "phoenix like" comeback from the ashes of terrorist charges.
Surfing through the channels, one news on BBC startled me. It read
"Hisbul Mujahidin's most wanted terrorist 'Sohel Faisal' killed in
Anantnag , India . Indian Major leading the operation lost his life in
the process. Four others are injured.


It was past midnight , I started visiting the stupid Indian channels,
but Sanjay Dutt was still ruling. They were telling how Sanjay pleaded
to the court saying 'I'm the sole bread earner for my family', 'I have
a daughter who is studying in US' and so on. Then they showed how
Sanjay was not wearing his lucky blue shirt while he was hearing the
verdict and also how he went to every temple and prayed for the last
few months. A suspect in Mumbai bomb blasts, convicted under armory
act...was being transformed into a hero.

Sure Sanjay Dutt has a daughter; Sure he did not do any terrorist
activity. Possessing an AK47 is considered too elementary in terrorist
community and also one who possesses an AK47 has a right to possess a
pistol so that again is not such a big crime; Sure Sanjay Dutt went to
all the temples;
Sure he did a lot of Gandhigiri but then........ ...

Major Manish H Pitambare got the information from his sources about
the terrorists' whereabouts. Wasting no time he attacked the camp,
killed Hisbul Mujahidin's supremo and in the process lost his life to
the bullets fired from an AK47. He is survived by a wife and daughter
(just like Sanjay Dutt) who's only 18 months old.

Major Manish never said 'I have a daughter' before he took the
decision to attack the terrorists in the darkest of nights. He never
thought about having a family and he being the bread earner. No news
channel covered this since they were too busy hyping a former drug
addict, a suspect who's linked to bomb blasts which killed hundreds.
Their aim was to show how he defied the TADA charges and they were so
successful that his conviction in possession of armory had no meaning.
They also concluded that his parents in heaven must be happy and proud
of him.

Parents of Major Manish are still living and they have to live rest of
their lives without their beloved son. His daughter won't ever see her
daddy again.


So guys, please forward this message around so that the media knows
which news to give importance, as it is a shame for us since this Army
Major's death news was given by a foreign TV channel!!!

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