Gee, how’re you feeling?

Alternatively, he ticks off people in absentia. ‘‘Togadia sahib,’’ he addressed the VHP leader after his canine remarks,‘‘aap bahut chhote ho gaye… aisa kissi ke liye nahin kahiye.’’

Prabhu Chawla peppers his performance with salty comments on Seedhi Baat (Aaj Tak). Hosting Gujarat ‘s caretaker chief minister Narendra Modi for the second time in approximately six months, he pestered Modi about birthrates (paanch aur pachees), General Pervez Musharraf and his Gaurav Yatra… ‘‘Paanch crore’’ Gujaratis would answer his critics, retorted Modi, criticising the pusillanimity of editors like Chawla at Musharraf’s press conference during the Agra summit last year. Momentarily, Chawla’s smile froze. Journalists, he ground out, didn’t need him to tell them what to do.

The Washington sniper, the Moscow hostage crisis, the Bali blast: by squaring the globe inside a TV set, the electronic media has exposed us all to violence wherever we travel, causing a heightened sense of insecurity. That’s why the nature of the coverage assumes disproportionate significance. On the whole it’s conservative. Ironically, that can increase discomfort levels. In Bali we saw white draped bodies and the blackened hole of the disco. In Moscow a woman slumped in her seat— dead not asleep — and piles of explosives.

Television dwelt upon two aspects: public feelings and the security operations. In Washington a posse of police cars — solid, black businesslike — and heavily-armed personnel. In Moscow armoured vehicles and security forces, outside. Inside, Chechen women and men dressed in suicide gear.

Those visuals, combined with the anxiety of victims’ relatives and the general public’s, are disturbing because innocent people may die (as happened in Moscow). Also, what is shown represents the bare minimum — the rest as BBC said from Moscow, was ‘‘too gruesome to broadcast’’ leaving viewers to imagine the worst.

You get a sense of extreme caution in the reports: listen to the CNN anchor soon after the arrest of the alleged snipers: ‘‘What we are hearing from our sources — yet to be confirmed — but we are waiting for it to be confirmed….and meanwhile what we have been hearing from our sister station WUSA… but just to recap what WUSA told us what he had learnt from his WUSA sources…AP quoting ATF says…’’ Whew. Each report prefaced by a source, leaving room for a possible future disclaimer.

It’s interesting that the Chechens wanted to be seen and openly broadcast themselves, unlike the attackers behind September 11, the Swaminarayan temple at Akshardham or the Bali blasts. Perhaps they considered themselves more rebel martyrs of a just cause than terrorists.

A curious spin-off from these acts of violence, is the personal interview, sometimes chillingly ordinary. Friday’s Larry King Live (CNN) saw accused sniper John Allen Mohammed’s ex-wife’s sister and brother-in-law (?). Asked King: how did you feel when you learnt it was him? ‘‘We were shocked’’ (what did King expect?); you’re not a great admirer of your brother-in-law? ‘‘No’’ (even if he was, would he admit it?); what is his son doing? ‘‘Trying to cope’’ (not turning cartwheels?). How would you describe him? ‘‘At times a real good guy… hard to get along with, arrogant…(but) okay with me.’’ (huh?).

Later, CNN called up co-accused John Lee Malvo’s father in Jamaica: how did you feel when you learnt about him? The line was indistinct but there was a ‘‘bad’’ somewhere there. Same scene in Moscow: how is your sister feeling inside the theatre? How are you now feeling (after the rescue)? How do you think?