Testing times for US media

ABC8217;s World News, only recently famous for reporting about Monica Lewinsky8217;s semen stained dress, led the way with a fantastic lead in to the test story, postulating that nuclear armed Indian submarines could potentially bomb Washington DC and New York. Other news channels and radio talk shows rabbited on endlessly about a possible nuclear conflagration in the region because of India8217;s tests and what they said was Pakistan8217;s imminent response.

Not one media outlet spoke of the US8217; 1,000 plus tests or thefact that the Republican dominated US Senate has rejected the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty and refused to ratify it. For that matter, there was not a whisper about the latest THAAD missile test conducted by the US, a few hours after India8217;s nuclear test. The 15 billion project, one of Washington8217;s most expensive and seen by many as a waste of money, saw the fifth consecutive test end in failure.

With 24 hours of newstime to fill, cable networks went berserk with ill-informed commentary and frivolous fillers. The upstart MSNBC carried its news stories with a caption provocatively titled India8217;s Bomb Threat.8217; 8220;It8217;s pathetic. Most of the time these guys have no idea what they are talking about. I guess they have to cater to the lowest common denominator and make things sound exciting to the lay public,8221; one Indian official said, sounding fairly helpless before a tide of adverse and ill-informed journalistic opinion passed off as news. Little informed debate was possible amid what one Indian journalistdescribed as an 8220;avalanche of bullshit.8221; The few reasoned critique were lost in the din of gabfests masquerading as discourse. There were few soundbites from India and Indian analysts in the US got barely a look-in.