Reality that hurts the eye

The joke was somewhat lost upon the sponsors. Since India lost to Australia, some ads featuring cricketers are trying hard to misplace them. The Pepsi safari ad, for example, is now running without Ganguly, Dravid, Kaif, etc. Just in case people really do stop buying Pepsi and switch to Coke.

The electronic media deserves to be installed in the pantheon of the Gods — or witches. Seriously. Barring earthquakes, underwater explorations and perhaps the price of bananas, it can do or affect anything. Gore Vidal says it has convinced the US public of the inevitability and logic of war with Iraq (CNN), Philip Kennicott says that TV’s heavy, emotional coverage of the Columbia catastrophe forced viewers to grieve disproportionately (The Washington Post), Javagal Srinath says TV commentators’ opinions led to the vandalism of cricketers’ homes — and just about everyone says the TV build-up to India’s chances, inflated expectations which stressed out the players who, then, went ahead and lost miserably to Australia.

Previously, the Gujarat riots, the failure of the Agra Summit, the release of the militants for Kandahar hijack victims and various other crimes have been laid at the door of the idiot box. When the Mahabharat was telecast, viewers were known to venerate the TV set. May be we should reprise the practice and the box will induce Ganguly to score a 100 against Pakistan!

Speaking of Vidal, CNN featured the writer/historian on Q&A, Thursday, and he minced the American media like a grinder does meat. He didn’t spare CNN either.

CNN anchor: Mr.Vidal, tell us briefly…

Mr Vidal: Yeah, everything on CNN has to be briefly.

For once, DD seems to have planned judiciously. As an alternative to the bombardment by CNN and BBC on Iraq, DD will offer resistance by giving us an Indian viewpoint through Third Eye. In the event of an armed conflict, we hope the Indian news channels follow its lead.

For, as war clouds gather over Baghdad, CNN and BBC have taken up positions on their governments’ flank. We don’t need Vidal to tell us that. Their enthusiasm for last Saturday’s anti-war demonstrations was demonstrably tepid: we were shown aerial shots of London protest (half a million, BBC said) and streets scenes in Paris and New York — after they had lost momentum.

If the prospects of war are not real enough for you, please switch to the latest channel on TV, Reality TV. A few hours of it, and you want to share a lock-up with that man-eater, Hannibal Lectern. Would you take a look at these shows: one extends an invitation — Let’s Have A Blast. Which doesn’t mean, ‘‘C’mon Barbie/Let’s go party’’; it means what it says: so we were privileged to watch the Duncan Building in Omaha, Nebraska, being torn down and when it collapsed, it was September 11 2001, all over again. Who would want to watch that? The anchor. ‘‘Is this eerie or what — wow!’’ he exclaimed as if he’d just collided with his own ghost.

Then there’s the World’s Worst rivers, and To Serve and Protect, which sounded like it was about gun-toting waiters but was actually about police rounding up alcoholics, drug addicts, wife-slammers and other well-adjusted human beings. If that doesn’t gut your guts, watch Where Disasters Happen, ‘‘the immeasurable fury, the unstoppable force.’’ Well, we watched a mangled train after its accident and bodies being lifted out, while listening to the delightful recollections of one survivor.

Hannibal you cannibal, give us love bite…