The first with the rumour : Shailaja Bajpai

(As appeared in Indian Express)

Call it the seven-year itch. Like all itches, it was brief, but so long as it lasted, Mian Nawaz Sharif’s latest fling with Pakistan was dramatic, passionate. As we watched over breakfast, Sharif landed, the general grounded him and TV news took to the air in glee. All morning was spent at, or rather outside, Islamabad International Airport, with cameras zooming in, as the crow flies, on the PIA aircraft on the tarmac. It was a piquant situation: Sharif could not get outside, the media and Sharif’s supporters get inside (although reporters did accompany Nawaz Sharif on his journey). Thwarting their reunion were Musharraf’s men who, indifferent to the romance of the moment, jammed mobile phones, too. Still, it made for excellent TV because it was like a suspense film.

TV news is nothing if not inventive: it looked for ways to inveigle itself into the proceedings, by talking to Pakistani journalists, editors, ministers, India’s Pakistan hands, two Indian journalists there and the few onboard the flight who managed to communicate with the outside world. Of course, there was endless speculation. Breaking News: Nawaz Sharif Lands, Breaking News: Nawaz Sharif asked by commandos for his passport, Breaking News: He refuses. Breaking News: Sharif Disembarks. When was the last time a man’s getting off a plane made headline news?

All this, courtesy Pakistan’s private channel, Geo TV, with inputs from Aaj TV, ARY and Dawn News. Also, a well-primed supporting cast that demonstrated outside the airport so that cameramen had something to show for their morning. For once, English and Hindi news channels were in perfect harmony: everyone hooked on to Geo, and scoured websites and the Pak media for exclusive tidbits of information. Talk was unnecessary because there was so little to report. That, however, never deters our TV anchors who believe they are radio cricket commentators; that’s why they end up asking silly questions which tend to obscure the intelligent ones. They ask: “What will happen in half an hour?” (Sharif sitting inside plane) “What should we be making of this?” (Plane sitting on tarmac). “Is the situation returning to normal?” (After people are lathi-charged). Sensible viewers simply pressed the mute button and read Breaking News.

From the plane, Sharif took to sitting in the VIP lounge at the airport. This is when things began to go wrong. As long as Sharif stayed inside the plane, news channels had access to him. In the lounge, he was isolated. And so the confusion: Breaking News: Sharif Arrested. Breaking News: Sharif detained. Breaking News: Nawaz not to be deported. Breaking News: Sharif handed over to Punjab Police. Breaking News: Will go to jail. Breaking News: Sharif disembarked, was detained, and then deported.

But that did not mean he didn’t speak. First on Geo, then ARY on the ground. Lesson for Musharraf: if you have studied the gastronomical tract, know that the more you stifle, the more gets out from other channels. Also, news channels had taken the precaution of interviewing Sharif before he left London, so there was always a pithy quote on hand. However, nothing he could say, compared with the responses of Pakistani ministers when asked what they thought was going to happen. Interior Minister Aftab Sherpao led the way: I don’t know what will happen, who can say what will happen, at this stage I can’t say what will happen, but it will be “according to the law”! Such gems are unusual. Preserve them.

Winners and losers: Since all channels were dependent on Geo, the visual coverage was seamless. As for information, Times Now was ahead. Its collaboration with Reuters gives it that — the latter’s correspondent was on Sharif’s flight and got the first quote from the exiled leader: great to be back. Times Now was quicker than the others which means it was always the first with news and the wrong rumour.

Hot on hype, cold on feeling

In tehelka.com, SANTOSH DESAI writes:

MAYBE SOME GOOD CAN COME out of it. The new definition of news on television, that is. Last week, all channels played the horrific Bhagalpur footage and ensured the Bihar overnment’s prompt action.The relentless need to create visual news has some advantages: any citizen armed with a camera is now a potential breaker of a story.

But it also begs the question as to what would happen if someone merely reported an event without any visual material. Would it still be news if the footage was not gruesome? News celebrates the pornography of the gruesome, even as it may put it to some good use.

It is revealing that the other big story of the week, the Hyderabad blasts, was covered extensively in both television and print but already seems a somewhat distant news event. While part of the reason for this is the unfortunate fact that we have seen far too many of these attacks, it is also true that the wall-to-wall coverage that gets unleashed in the immediate aftermath of such events tends to expend itself far too quickly. Also, with everything getting the high-pitched and hysterical treatment, channels seem bereft of real emotion when something truly horrifying occurs.

A good example of this hysteria is in the way the Salman Khan jail episode was covered. Every step of his journey to Jodhpur was breathlessly followed as if it were a film’s climax. What was specifically newsworthy about the trip is still unclear. Every element of his stay was analysed, including a channel speculating on the symbolism of the white top worn by Katrina Kaif (a sign of peace?).

The N-saga limps on, having moved from a state of high suspense to one of soggy compromise. Virtually all mainstream opinion seems ranged against the Left, a situation it has no doubt grown comfortable with. In this context, it was interesting to read Sudheendra Kulkarni’s defence of the Left in The Indian Express. Signs of a nuclear hell freezing over, perhaps.

Kapil Dev has taken up residence in our homes via television. He moved in a couple of weeks ago and has resolutely refused to leave. He uses inarticulateness and emotional blackmail as chief weapons in mounting a surprisingly effective case for the ICL, and the channels have been happy to go along.

I missed the “teacher prostituting students” story but found it amusing how some English channels immediately raised questions about how teachers’ antecedents are not verified before they are hired. Easy outrage comes easily to the media, and most often it comes with the benefit of hindsight.

(Desai is the CEO of Future Group)

Sting backfires: girl on TV held for cheating

Source : Hindustan Times

This was one sting that did not smell right on Day One. A week after, it stinks. The police on Thursday arrested a woman, who played a critical role in the sting on a government schoolteacher, charging her with cheating.

The accused, Rashmi Singh, had posed as a schoolgirl alleging that teacher Uma Khurana pushed her and other girls into prostitution. All this was said, recorded on film and telecast by Live India, a television news channel.

That was on August 30. Public outrage followed. The schoolteacher was attacked by a mob, sacked by the education department and arrested by the police. The city was shocked. And the news channel gloated.

The police now say a Live India reporter staged the sting using Rashmi as the accuser. She is neither a schoolgirl nor a sex-worker. The police said she is an aspiring journalist who lives in Noida.

Delhi police spokesman Rajan Bhagat said Rashmi has been charged with cheating, impersonation, criminal conspiracy and giving false evidence. “Action against the channel is now imminent,” said a senior officer.

Live India CEO and editor Sudhir Chaudhary told HT on Thursday that he will give his comments after consulting his lawyer. Later, he stopped taking calls on his mobile phone.

Khurana, meantime, is going to spend more time in judicial custody unsure of what her fate is going to be. Or how soon can she expect to be released from judicial custody.

What about the education department? Will it now withdraw the dismissal orders served on Khurana hastily the day after her arrest? For them Khurana was guilty even before she went on trial.

Education minister Arvinder Singh Lovely told HT on Thursday: “I can only comment once I receive the official report from the crime branch.” He had earlier said, “The government’s enquiry committee watched the CD and found that our students were not involved in the racket. But the principal of the school’s Bulbuli Khana branch identified the woman shown in the sting. She was Khurana and that is why we sacked her.”

It has been an easy incident for the city to handle. On day one, Delhiites watched the story roll on their television sets with a growing sense of shock and anger: a schoolteacher pushing her girls into prostitution. People, including many parents, responded with understandable outrage. The school was attacked and Khurana was manhandled. The news channel went to town with what it clearly thought was its crowning glory.

From day two the case started looking at a little weak. HT, in fact, had reported that the girl in the sting was neither a schoolgirl nor a prostitute. Soon word came from the police that the reporter was being questioned.

The channel took on critics. Chaudhary said, “In almost all such operations, reporters assume fake identities to carry out the sting effectively.”

Police was not convinced and began talking to the journalists behind the sting. Another person, Virendra Arora, was arrested.

Then the case just collapsed. Khurana apparently owed Arora some money, which became the cause of a dispute. This lay at the heart of the sting.

भारतीय अखबारों का बदलता जलवा

अंग्रेजी अखबारों ke मामले में भारत के छोटे शहरों का हाल बड़ा अनोखा है। सारे अखबार एक दिन बाद आते हैं इसलिये ऐसा लगता है की आप अखबार नही इतिहास की पुस्कत के अंश पढ़ रहे हैं। वैसे अंग्रेजी हो या हिंदी अखबारों के फोटोग्राफ्स काफी आगे बढ़ चुके हैं। कल के टाईम्स ऑफ़ इंडिया का ही उदहारण देखिए। विरोध तो हो रहा था राष्ट्रपति बुश का और बीच मे विज्ञापन के नए तरीके ढूँढने वालो ने अपना काम कर दिखाया। रही सही कसार अखबार वालो ने इसे पहले पन्ने पर खबरों के बीच छाप कर पूरी कर दी।