BBC is a good place to turn to if you want news TV interpretation of death of icons. Its not just that sombreness with a measure of sophistication comes so naturally to Beebs anchors. Its also Beebs sense of news history. How extravagantly talented Michael Jackson was,what a tangle his life was and where does he figure in the cultural iconography of our times news TV is not the best medium to extract the complexities these questions pose but BBC is probably the best bet of all news TV choices,including other non-Indian broadcasters we are familiar with. BBCs Jackson montage,to take a small example,was better by a considerable margin than everything else I saw. If Jackson the artist and the man enthralled and intrigued you,you may want to do what I did,bookmark the Jackson montage video from Beebs web site.
On news TV before Jackson,and from the home front,I have four curious cases to report.
2. The curioser case of a good discussion driven by anchors: I dont know about you but my expectations in terms of quality discussions are especially low as far as news bulletins go. But the double anchor team on CNN-IBNs Thursday evening news show did a good job of quizzing Kapil Sibal on his plans for education. Almost every question demanded a substantive answer. Example: isnt the Xth standard board exam crucial for rural children who want to switch to vocational courses?
3. The still more curious case of a dry subject producing a good discussion driven by the anchor: How will a possibly poor monsoon affect the economy? You should read newspapers for that kind of stuff. But the NDTV talk on the subject showed news TV can do better than it usually does. It helped of course that two smart politicians,Prithviraj Chavan and Suresh Prabhu,and economist Subir Gokarn were on the panel. But the anchor interventions helped,too. It struck me,watching this,what difference a little prep work can do to talk TV anchoring. Let me be careful: may be all anchors always do great prep work. But it doesnt always show. In this case,it did.
4. The curiousest case of a not-so-good discussion driven by viewer questions relayed via the anchor: NDTV had Sibal answering questions sent in by viewers and read out by the anchor. Democracy doesnt work in everything this was proof. Inevitably,the questions were widely disparate and sometimes strange (will primary education be made free? Government primary education is already free). It didnt help that Sibal and the anchor were framed inside the pages of what looked like a moth-eaten book (educations is about books,did you get it?). Some of the anchors own questions were curious. In the context of madrassahs,Sibal was asked with a severity not merited by the issue,what do you mean by secular education? What he meant was obvious,but he dutifully repeated it.
Business news channels have this problem: they engender the expectation that when you turn to them you will see two anchors and one analyst in deep discussion about an obscure mid-cap company. Will ET Now break the mould? Way too early to tell. But that ET Nows screen is not cluttered with stock market-related squiggles is perhaps a good sign.
My idea of a must-watch business channel programme: take a complex business/economic news story and give the viewers a fair idea of what the fuss is all about. And dont confuse the Sensex with life.
saubhik.chakrabarti@expressindia.com
