Opinion Stormy Weather

With Hudhud failing to strike as hard as predicted, TV channels scrambled from coast to coast looking for a scoop.

October 18, 2014 12:18 AM IST First published on: Oct 18, 2014 at 12:18 AM IST

Times Now, the radically redistributive Robin Hood of Indian media, has gone where no TV crew has dared to go before. Against a video backdrop of the rich and famous across the political spectrum, from Uma Bharti to Digvijaya Singh via Sushilkumar Shinde, it has been attacking what it thinks is a breathtaking scam: MPs who have been MLAs earlier are still collecting their MLA salaries, along with their MP salaries and perks. In vain did a government functionary protest that there is no law against it. In vain did Sandeep Dixit explain that there was no contradiction. Let us illustrate: if you win an Olympic swimming medal, must you surrender state-level ping pong prize? But fat cats were clearly getting fatter, and that always enrages Times Now beyond reason.

The disaster porn that Huhhud promised fortunately fizzled out since the storm, which was supposed to gather force as it hit the coast, actually lost head. Even so, as Doordarshan showed in the morning, the wind was so high that it whipped its reporters words away. Competing with nature, Live India’s studio in Delhi showed unrelenting digital rain. Meanwhile, most channels, even the non-commercial ones, were rushing to pack in some regular programming, expecting the rest of the day to be taken up by carnage. Rajya Sabha TV was running Samvidhaan, with BR Ambedkar addressing schoolchildren, extolling the virtues of social conscience over legal safeguards. Meanwhile, Lok Sabha TV had dived into the obscurities of ammonia. The business channels, of course, do not deign to notice anything until it impacts someone’s profitability. So, while trees were falling in Vishakhapatnam, NDTV Profit was canvassing Parineeti Chopra’s views on the endorsement business.

There is never much to report on a storm from within it but afterwards, in Vishakhapatnam, CNN-IBN showed something on the lines of a food riot surrounding a relief truck, and reported that a bottle of mineral water was going for Rs 250 and a packet of milk for Rs 100. This was in the heart of the city. Nothing like this was seen in Orissa after the ‘super cyclone’ of 1999, which had taken 15,000 lives. In contrast to this panic reporting, NDTV carried an interview with a petrol pump manager which turned into a public interest message, assuring the people that he had ample supplies and if he rationed, it was only to disperse the mobs of panic buyers as rapidly as possible.

The run-up to the Maharashtra polls also gave Hudhud serious competition, triggering the usual race to bag exclusive interviews. Jagdish Chandra, who heads ETV news services, claimed the exclusive bagging of Prakash Javadekar, but as far as one could make out, Karan Thapar already had him in the bag, and had asked him the question that mattered: “Do you expect Modi, on his own, to deliver a majority?”

The Pakistani channel Abb Takk (name and logo cheerfully swiped from Indian channel Aaj Tak) ran a provocative interview of Pervez Musharraf, in which he wished out loud that Kashmiri separatists could be “incited”. That incited Goswami into launching Indo-Pak confidence-breaking measures. He had three Pakistanis on his show on Thursday. One drank tea. One laughed about nuclear holocaust. One shouted “bloody” this and “bloody” that, having been goaded by the usually suave Seshadri Chari, whom he declared a “lunatic”. Arnab yelled that Musharraf was the only lunatic in South Asia. Maj Gen GD Bakshi’s brave moustaches drooped in battle fatigue as tried to have his say. But Mahesh Jethmalani had no trouble attracting attention, having come to the studio in his striped pyjama top. Why? It was a late show, but not that late.

pratik.kanjilal@expressindia.com