If I tend to write more about NDTV and CNN-IBN than other TV news channels, as some of the mail I receive have pointed out, there’s a very good reason for it: my brief is TV news, I have, for better or for worse, a certain definition of news and these are the two channels that depart the least from that definition. In other words, I find it worthwhile engaging critically with news presentation on these channels. That’s not the case, sadly, with most of their competitors. Proof—not that I needed it—came again when Karnataka CM Kumaraswamy decided to sulk over the inauguration of the first phase of the Bangalore-Mysore Infrastructure Corridor (BMIC) project.NDTV and CNN-IBN gave top billing to the story. BMIC is becoming a test case for infrastructure politics. It should be a media priority, if the media takes the India story seriously beyond Sensex movements and North Block statements. It was, as they say, heartening that while Rakhi Sawant was grabbing mindspace at Star News, Kumaraswamy’s not-awfully-articulate mumbles were news on NDTV and CNN-IBN.But, and this is a big but, even NDTV/CNN-IBN correspondents/anchors seem disinclined to give broader contexts to the important and serious stories they cover. For example, NDTV’s correspondent gave a clear summary of what’s bothering Kumaraswamy now and the claims and counterclaims of the private developer and the state government—but a lay viewer, without the advantage of prior knowledge, wouldn’t have known from that report or the anchor’s questions that BMIC has emerged with two clear court verdicts in its favour, that the fundamental issue is where the state should draw the line in terms of overseeing commercial ventures.Interestingly, both channels gave a rather easy time to Shashi Tharoor, India’s choice for running the world’s best-provided gravy train, aka, the United Nations. Tharoor appeared grave and dignified while answering soft and easy questions. What are your chances of winning, is one obvious question I didn’t hear. This “distinguished son of Asia” — MEA’s description; proof that rhetorical flourishes can overtake the foreign office, too—should face tougher questions when he does the round of TV studios again. There’s a danger, I think, of the Tharoor nomination playing out on TV simply as “our man for the big job” story. I would really love to see at least one channel producing a feature, showing why and how the UN is run in many ways like a spendthrift, third world bureaucracy (one reason: the UN’s full of spendthrift, third world bureaucrats).I suppose it is more or less clear that I am sufficiently underwhelmed by India’s decision to fight for the UN’s top job. I wouldn’t be praying we win this one. Perhaps, Rakhi Sawant won’t be either, although let me not prejudge anything here. I do know, though, that her prayers are frequent. She told CNN-IBN this, in an interview that was absolutely the only TV news programme on Ms Sawant that wasn’t a despairing combination of the vacuous and the voyeuristic.I am, trust me, incapable of silly moralistic outrage. But the liplock that was news for me this week, but wasn’t for most of the broadcast media, was Kumaraswamy trying to kiss Bangalore’s future goodbye.-saubhik.chakrabarti@expressindia.com
