Opinion And Skulls Will Roll

Death again! It’s infectious on prime time. A panelist on CNN-IBN’s 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 can’t,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 didn’t 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 wasn’t. 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 wasn’t passed. But,and to borrow a frequently heard phrase on CNN-IBN,let’s 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 wasn’t exactly clear whether footage of the reporter’s 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 that’s apparently the company’s 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 what’s 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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