It has been a fascinating week for news TV. There was the amusing sight of the prime minister and the leader of the opposition trading Urdu couplets during the WikiLeaks debate in the Lok Sabha; and then that of the leader of the opposition going on various channels and saying that it was altogether charming and that the session was successful and enjoyable,all told. This bonhomie contrasts pleasantly with open warfare between CNN-IBN and Times Now and Headlines Today over IBNs handling of the original cash-for-votes sting,with IBN being called,with silly and confusing evasiveness,a channel I will not name throughout. It was all very entertaining,as long as you convinced yourself they werent taking themselves seriously,in which case it would just have been depressing.
But,these weeks,the real stories have been outside. In Libya,for one,being told by people like CNNs Nic Robertson in Tripoli,and several Libyan contributors,particularly Mohammed Nabbous of Benghazi,who was shot and killed this week while reporting on a possible violation of its self-declared ceasefire by Gaddafis regime. These were reports from a war zone,from reporters under threat; and yet they succeeded,for the most part,in keeping themselves out of the frame,and presenting the developing story with the gravity it deserved. Robertson even attacked a Fox News journalist by name for,in his opinion,lies and deceit in a story claiming journalists were human shields,which he said was nuts,and filed by people who dont leave the hotel and whom he sees mostly at the hotel breakfasts.
Contrast that blatant irresponsibility with the reporting from Japan,some of it on CNN-IBNs foreign affiliate,and carried on IBN,too. Sanjay Gupta has a sensible bedside manner,and hammered the point in,over and over again,that the radius of any severe radiation leakage would keep pretty much everyone watching CNN safe even in a worst-case scenario. He had joined Anderson Cooper in Japan,who had gone to cover the tsunami and actually had to cancel half of his two-hour show because he was too close to the nuclear plant. Tough job,but it wasnt made much of. Indeed,his shows were well-balanced,calming,and respectful of Japans grief; they interviewed nuclear engineers whod worked in plants explaining how you sometimes had to risk your life; survivors of the Indian Ocean tsunami,on coping mechanisms; energy experts stressing the safeguards built in to more modern nuclear plants; and an American senator from Louisiana complaining about people that use any ongoing crisis to immediately try to advance their pre-existing political agenda rather than first dealing with the crisis,and secondly actually gathering the facts. It felt like watching reporting,and discussion,that took itself seriously. That worried about the impact it would have,rather than about having an impact. On reporting moments of crisis,it was clear that theres a lot for Indian news TV to learn.
