Some evil thoughts on today's journalism

The worst enemy of today’s journalism is neither governments nor an anti-governmental scenario. It is the journalists themselves, the way they operate.

I can’t remember the last time we had a real strong breaking news, whether it is politics, business, crime, science or sports.

Just a sample, latest from sports: How many of my creed knew that India still held a chance to win a bronze medal in wrestling, after Sushil Kumar got beaten in the first round? The media cried: Disappointing day for India in wrestling, Sushil defeated.

Then when he actually won a bronze medal through this system called repechage, I watched in amazement, how television news welcomed it. They did never show even a tinge of embarrassment for having ignored the medal possibility, and were gleefully explaining the technicalities of repechage instead.

What more can we expect from a machinery which calls every news an exclusive or breaking news? And what more can we expect from this world of journalism, owned, ruled and abused by corporates?

Speaking about Olympics, I felt the Indian media never did really bother to look at the potential medal hopes ahead of the Olympics and obviously, Abhinav Bindra was a surprise.

And look at the coverage received by the sleepy Haryana village called Bhiwani. Did anyone know there existed such a village? Don’t get me wrong here. Realization dawned overnight: this hamlet was called the Mecca of Indian boxing! Now we can have all kinds of documentaries shot around this village!

Instead, in those pre-Olympics days, the media went the clichéd way of celebrating the kinds of Sania Mirza and Anju Bobby George, who could not even give a match to their opponents (literally), leave alone the medal possibility.

So, our media is in a helpless position. They can’t unearth conspiracies that threaten the national security, they can’t foresee gigantic deals in Indian business, they can’t predict a politician’s next move.

They just talk about things that happened and then do some follow up to earn that daily bread and when the next issue happens, conveniently forgets the prior issue.

What happened to the Arushi murder case? Nobody seems interested now. The issues that followed swallowed it.

I think the only way to break this monotony called commoditized journalism is to do path-breaking stories – once in a while at least.

And shamefully I accept, I am no different. To a deadly extent, it is all about that thing called convenient, armchair, wire n wireless, googled journalism.

I am not talking about certain enthusiastic reporters who actually take the trouble of visiting the 'site' and cajole people to enact in front of the camera.

A Vanity Affair

Aamir Khan pondering on his dog called Shahrukh, sitting in the remote hillside of Panchgani.

Amitabh Bachchan, in short and crisp paragraphs, musing away in his hotel room.

These blogs from the two supershots of bollywood have caught the fancy of fans, media and the industry alike. And they had been creating great waves as well, for their sheer intensity, simplicity, honest approach and above all..for some of those blunt comments...surely intended to stir the scandal-crazy minds a bit.

Look at the latest Aamir blog entry that had been making the whole world sit up and take notice. In this blog, Aamir reveals he has a pup named Shahrukh in his Panchgani house. And he did not name it, he says. It was named by the ex-caretakers of that house and the dog came along with the purchase.

We can choose to believe him or not. But, the point is, the way he has written the blog.

Contrary to the argument and the criticism, nowhere in the blog, he has blurted out anything harsh against his archrival. And, still the mockery stands out. That is what makes this particular blog entry very very cute, I believe.

Subtle. This is what Aamir does. (As you know, Shahrukh is busy teaching his IPL team the ABCD of business management in cricket.)

Celebrity blogs, if given a honest and real life treatment would always stand out. It is like a real life show you get to watch...a peek in the real life incidents of these stars. But, forget those fancy brainless blogs come in the name of certain stars. The blogging tool manipulated or rather exploited by their PR for sheer plugging.

And then, here we are, the aam janta, jotting down our good for nothing musings, and most of the time, nobody reads it!

We are not popular…we matter to only our close friends and relatives.

Still, we write about what we ate today for breakfast, what did we gift Mom for birthday, the plans for the next weekend, how ugly we felt the last hotel food we had, how we rate the last movie we watched etc etc....

In all of us, I feel, there is an urge to emulate the lifestyles of those celebrities we see all around us. But, we are not able to do that....so what should we do?

One ego-cushion is these blogs.

We write our blogs and circulate among friends.....add the url as a sign-off to our mails...expecting even those hapless strangers - who receive our tasteless forward mails - read it and admire our creativity....

It is just one method....everyone can't do it....you should know how to write....

But, talking about the public, there are various games people play to get noticed....grab eyeballs....their endless thirst for admiration.

We have often heard about kids with rare skills..........some of them can drive even before learning how to walk by themselves....some of them can solve any maths problem......some of them can get you the names of country capitals in a flash...

But, I wonder...why these parents are so much publicity-crazy. Let their little ones have a life....Keep the skill to yourself and use it for better things......I don't know what happen to all these kids later....we never get to see any update......they end up in the capsule programmes coming at the end of a news telecast...bringing their parents some instant stardom in their locality.

I hate vanity.

So, me hating vanity, how does it matter to others....?

What makes me writing down this piece of blog....and rather forcefully conveying my ideas about vanity? Answer is simple. I want the reader to read this blog, and appreciate and admire my hatred for vanity.

So, who is the biggest fraud here?