I know this is no longer breaking news or even any kind of news but it worries me,nevertheless. And it ought to worry everyone in the news business when we can spare the time,of course,from worrying about the Radia tapes. Its about TV coverage of last weeks blast in Varanasi. If you watched,the live and happening news channels,you would be well within your rights to ask,is this journalism?
Why do I say that? The blast occurred near 6.30 pm. I watched between 7.30 pm and 8 pm. The TV cameramen did what they could,poor dears,when there are few casualties: they trained their weapons of mass consumption on the pools of blood from the injured. They then showed us bystanders looking at the pools of blood or looking distractedly at where the blast had taken place. So far so good,if you enjoy the sight of blood.
The ticker tape and the headlines gave us varying figures for the casualties,the injured. DD News said 7 injured; Aaj Tak claimed 7 injured,4 critically,but the figure could be 20; IBN-7 said 25-30 injured,4 of them foreigners;
Times Now says 20 injured. Murli Manohar Joshi,the BJP MP from Varanasi said the local police had told him 10 injured; in between the other channels filled in the numbers. Result? Not sure how many casualties. Next morning we learnt one young child had died.
Next: NDTV India said the ‘dhamaka was of low intensity and the bomb was in a milk container. Other channels confirmed this. The next morning,we learnt that it was nothing of the sort: it was in a niche in the wall.
Thereafter,all news channels began to quote the DIG. He said 7 injured. A few had bystanders giving their impressions. INX showed us an injured child why? Shouldnt they have exercised a little sensitivity when capturing a minor on camera?
Then,there was a hue and cry by INX’s Jhajhar Singh on the ‘complete sense of disorientation in Benares. If he said it once,he said it a hundred times: you will be shocked how ‘dirty and disorganised is Benares. Yes,but what precisely did this general disgusting state have to do with this particular blast? He didnt say.
Aaj Tak meanwhile,went on about the ‘huge security lapse that allowed such an incident to occur. No substantive proof of this,either.
I can quote more,but there is no need. It was in the same vein. Shouldnt news channels be a little more careful before reporting on an ‘attack? On what caused it? On the number of casualties,the injured? Where the bomb or device was buried milk container or the wall?
It is good journalistic practise to check and recheck the facts but on TV news,they simply go with the flow. I know the Ganga is right there,but this is ridiculous. Or then,they simply let the DIG speak. Or the Home Secretary,G K Pillai,Thats fine. But it aint journalism; one has to do more than simply place a mike before an official source. We have to recheck the facts,the impressions,before blasting on all cylinders. But whenever such incidents occurs,TV news runs for the finish line like there is a gold medal to be won.
