Whose news is it, anyway?

Newspapers are the means to reach the people.'' With these profound words, brash, young crime reporter, Mehra, turns his stiff, self-rig...

8220;Newspapers are the means to reach the people.8221; With these profound words, brash, young crime reporter, Mehra, turns his stiff, self-righteous body away from Sagarikaji, the editor of New Something Times. She8217;s offered him a job 8212; on his terms and conditions; he8217;s informed her of his views on women, like her, who offer men cigars or cigarettes alongwith jobs: 8220;I don8217;t like them,8221; he elaborates.

Something8217;s burnin8217; between them, but it ain8217;t love or tobacco. Young, good-looking, America-returned Samir is kissing the hand of a young, long-haired, doe-eyed swear! pretty, designer-type. She asks for his office not his hand, he agrees: when I8217;ve given you my heart, what8217;s a li8217;l bit of brick and mortar? To soften the loss of his room, Ravisha some such suggests a way out of his financial dead end: use your newspaper office premises to hold fashion shows. 8220;You mean newspaper band?8221; Samir exclaims softly, sadly but not entirely regretfully. No, no, she admonishes him with a slap of herthickly-carpeted lips, the beauty of it is that you will use your newspaper to promote the shows, publicity, man, publicity.

8220;It will be a happening place,8221; she offers him with the promise of her body well!!! just practising the art of romancing writing. Thus does the Front Page DD Metro offer consolation to all ye proprietors of embattled publications with excessive floor space: just refashion your office!

Shobha Kanodia Bajaj, editor not an oil or scooter manufacturer as her names might suggest employs the good offices not floor space of politician M.B.Singh to get her an interview with one vastly prosperous the emphasis is on vastly business tycoon: Bijlani and Brothers. 8220;Use the media against the media,8221; M.B.advises Bijli, 8220;repeat a lie with such truthfulness, the truth is embarrassed8221; so it sounds better in Hindi, so what?. Shobha rings up Pritish we8217;ll come to these names in a moment and tells him she has fixed the interview with Bijlani. 8220;How did you manage it?8221; asksPritish, wonderingly. Shobbha replies with a mysterious smile wasted since he can8217;t see it: 8220;Sometimes,8221; says Pritish, 8220;I feel I know you and sometimes,8221; he adds momentously, 8220;I feel I don8217;t know you at all8230;8217; that8217;s it?.

Why this exhaustive description of last week8217;s Front Page? Because it reflects what television producers imagine happens in the world of journalism. Front Page is a glam-sham: too sweet talkin8217; and far, far too good-looking. Most of us journos look like we went to bed with the press along with the paper. As to the names: we can only suppose it isn8217;t pure incidental coincidence that three leading characters share first names with well-known proprietor Samir Jain and journalists, Shobha De and Pritish Nandy.

This is not the first serial about journalism: long long, long ago, there was Chhapte Chhapte and most recently, Saaya Sony. None have been entirely successful in depicting what happens between the lines, perhaps because the producers don8217;t really know what happens. Butthe truth concerns us all so maybe they should appoint the real Pritish and Shobha as scriptwriters?

From fictional news to the real thing: Kargil, Orissa, the encephalitis epidemic in Andhra Pradesh: human and natural catastrophes. Headlines. Every night. One barely fades from the screen, it8217;s replaced by another. Mark Tully said there were no full stops in India: he should have added, there is no THE END. To suffering. Finally, the enormity of the people8217;s problems appears to be taking precedence over politicians. A small beginning but maybe a window of opportunity for us to redefine the news.

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The news has been obsessed with politicians for so long, it8217;s no longer magnificent. The distance between pols and we plebs is one we seldom travel or bridge. Kargil did, Orissa does, encephalitis does. The media is giving them space and through these disasters we get closer to the truth of what8217;s reallyhappening in the country: that Mehra character was right: media is a means to reaching the people andreflecting their lives, he ought to have said.

Of course, Orissa8217;s wasteland has been obscured either by its politicians or by WTO, Insurance Bill, etc. Still, it8217;s there in the news 8212; though not nearly prominently enough. So is encephalitis. STAR News almost got it perfect: people matter in India Matters, their special section in the news.

Both STAR News and Zee News have made efforts to reveal people8217;s lives 8212; their wretchedness, their accomplishments. Another redefinition of the news? It8217;s not merely the bad and the ugly but the good too: STAR profiled bureaucrats who are making a difference, Zee News profiled a UP village which has just attained 100 literacy. Question is: will the good8217; work continue?

The most irritatingly, irritating irritant: advertising. In prime time serials across channels and during the news on STAR News and Zee News, they8217;re beginning to total the combined population of China and India! You want to find out what happened in Orissa? Sorry, after a yawn break. You wantto see if Gautam hits Manisha before she clobbers him Saans? Sorry, after a snooze break.

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Don8217;t believe us? Evidence: yours sincerely ! went out of the room, searched for a pen in another, found it, selected 9 pistas from a bowl of mixed dry fruits, shelled them, ate them, read two 300-500 word newspaper articles, yawned twice 8212; before the serial returned from a commercial break. You begin to appreciate that idiotic definition of the box: television is the art of selling viewers to advertisers through television shows.