Opinion And Skulls Will Roll
NDTVs Buck Stops Here prefaced its debate on Commonwealth Games by observing that corruption allegations...
NDTVs Buck Stops Here prefaced its debate on Commonwealth Games by observing that corruption allegations have claimed the skulls of three organizing committee members. Pity that NDTV quickly corrected skulls to heads. Skulls,I felt it in my bones,was a brilliantly insightful linguistic snapshot of at least some of news TVs approach to the CWG scandal stories. Consider the following.
Buck Stops Here,having started with skulls,proved to be remarkably consistent in delivering a smorgasbord of chilling anatomical,topographical and emotional imagery. Put your hand in your heart,NDTV told a CWG official. In,not on,you understand. If your hand is in your heart,is it any wonder that your head will become a skull? It smells of rot,it smells of dirt,NDTV said. Is dirt smelly enough to make this aspect of it a metaphor,you may be asking. Dirt mixed with skulls and bloody hearts can be very smelly indeed,and then there are severed arms. An NDTV panelist said the CWG chiefs arms are cut. Gosh! This gory wasteland,where theres no more patriotism; this,from the same NDTV panelist. There are three passionate women (in the studio),NDTV told a CWG official,give us something to believe in. There was one puzzled TV viewer (me) who thought okay lets review our notes on what other broadcasters have been saying on CWG.
Death again! Its infectious on prime time. A panelist on CNN-IBNs India at 9 said we must acquire a culture where the crooks are put in jail. Yes,we must; agreed. But that kind of stuff you can get from newspaper commentaries. News TV gives you the extras. The CNN-IBN panelist elaborated: crooks here must go to jail because unfortunately we cant,like China,execute the baddies. Had we be been able to,the panelist pointed out,it would have been even better. How steely-nerved TV anchors are! On hearing a panelist saying death is better than dismissal as a systemic response to venality,the anchor didnt say Good god or stuff like that. The anchor said we will come to that point because all that we have at the end of the day is suspension of officials (emphasis mine). Come to that point! That point where we thoughtfully discuss on live TV the execution of CWG officials! This could be better than movies,man. But,sad,so sad,it wasnt. True,the panelist gave dates of when China executed some officials. True,he said we are a helpless,voiceless,impotent country when it comes to corruption. But the anchor merely asked,of another panelist,will the guilty go to jail. As far as I could make out,a death verdict wasnt passed. But,and to borrow a frequently heard phrase on CNN-IBN,lets hold on to that thought. There are many days before the CWG begins,and many more evening chat shows.
Note,in this context,that Times Now,as far as I saw,stayed away from death and related issues while talking about CWG. Times Now was in London for a CWG story. Good for it. But it wasnt exactly clear whether footage of the reporters walkabouts in London suburbs,short conversations with a front-desk person of the company named in the story and with a lady who claimed to be a resident of the address thats apparently the companys postal address,as well as visuals of the reporter having a scratchy phone conversation with the company head,lent awesome journalistic value to the story. You say you have the papers that nail the story. Show whats in the paper clearly,explain the whole thing clearly,let the reporter doing the story be front and square while all this is done you will have a better-presented story. All we would miss are some shots of London suburbs.
The skeletons will still tumble out. And the skulls will roll.
saubhik.chakrabarti@expressindia.com
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