Dr Shaitan146;s natural death

Jagat Singh didn8217;t look the same on CNN-IBN and Times Now. Perhaps conscious that he would be an exclusive for both channels...

Jagat Singh didn8217;t look the same on CNN-IBN and Times Now. Perhaps conscious that he would be an exclusive for both channels he was thoughtful enough to create some product differentiation. Truth be told I was pretty fed up by the week8217;s end with injured innocence as exhibited by ex-foreign ministers who belong to Rajasthan8217;s premier social set.

Plus, I spent the week wondering about a story on people rather less fortunate in terms of life8217;s chances. My relationship with TV hidden camera exposes is in essence the same as Hermann Goering8217;s was with culture. I reach for the remote; he used to reach for his revolver. But I didn8217;t when CNN-IBN8217;s and Channel 78217;s sting 8212; doctors allegedly performing made-to-order amputations for begging syndicates 8212; went on air.

My first instinct was that there would be something compellingly conclusive in the story. I spoke to some of my colleagues and I kind of doubted some of their doubts about whether the story would add up. I told myself it didn8217;t matter that Channel 78217;s theme music for the story out-8216;decibeled8217; background scores of mother-in-law/daughter-in-law soaps. I was prepared to overlook the fact that Channel 7 correspondents were hyperventilating as if society had shaken off its slumber and risen in moral outrage. I swallowed the grimace engendered by the Channel 7 anchor saying 8220;Dr Shaitan8221; with manifest relish.

I did all that because I thought I would see a story that would not merely suggest a connection 8212; between venal doctors and begging rackets 8212; but demonstrate it in at least one case.

Of course I know, as any journalist would, that to show a conclusive link between a malefactor and his victim in such cases is tough. But if it is tough to get, it should be impossible to show. If CNN-IBN and Channel 7 only had footage of some doctors suggesting they could be bought and some beggars saying they had been victims but had nothing to directly link the two sets and no concrete, provable information on illegal, made-to-order amputations from any clinic, they shouldn8217;t have run the story.

Let me put it this way: if the story did have the potency that CNN-IBN and Channel 7 claimed every half hour as they aired it, would ex-foreign ministers8217; aristocratic angst have hogged so much news space? Yes media organisations can be bloody minded when it comes to, as journalists say, following up each other8217;s stories. But a really good story leaves no one any choice.

The media had picked up CNN-IBN8217;s break on Mr Q. Why did the story on Dr Shaitan die a natural death?