No method to media madness : HindustanTimes.com

No method to media madness
V Gangadhar, December 10, 2005

At Mumbai's Lilavati Hospital, there is now a new daily prayer for doctors, nurses and general staff: "O, Lord God, send us dengue cases,/ Malaria, hepatitis, encephalitis and the rest,/But God, please spare us from reporters,/Photographers and Amar Singhs."

As India's number one showman Amitabh Bachchan lay ill at hospital, the Indian media, both print and TV, provided us with examples of 'new journalism' made up of exaggeration, sensationalism and plain silliness. About half-a-dozen OB vans belonging to various TV channels were parked near the hospital; reporters, mostly young and brash, were determined to tell the world what they thought of Bachchan's illness. In the process they proved a nuisance to other patients and genuine visitors to the hospital.

One man's illness was turned into a soap opera with tears, rage, and a bit of attempted deceit for that elusive scoop. One of the reporters from Aaj Tak tried to enter the hospital posing as a doctor though this was denied by the channel's editor who pointed out that his reporter did not wear a gown and was without any hidden camera or electronic equipment.

Facts were hard to come by, so imagination took over. It was colitis the first day, though Khalid Mohammad of DNA, a close family friend of the Bachchans came out with some facts. The mob fell on anyone who had visited the hospital's 11th floor where the Bachchan family was staying and bombarded them with questions and quoted them as though they were medical experts. When a movie director came down after meeting the family, reporters from Headlines Today peppered him with questions on how the Hindi film industry would manage without Bachchan because more than Rs 500 crores were invested in him. This was a recurring theme with the media, As the star underwent surgery the media could not decide which angle was more important: the medical details or the AB financial deals.

Star News led the race in breathless frivolity devoting nearly 20 hours of its daily news to the Bachchan health saga. Its breaking news included such gems like 'Abhi Amitabh ko stretcher mein laya gaya', 'Amitabh aaj juice piya tha' (I don't know why they missed out whether he drank orange, apple or pineapple juice!). Detailed references were made to the earlier accident on the sets of Coolie in 1982 and the treatment at Breach Candy. One channel read out excerpts from Bachchan Senior's autobiography which blamed the treatment given to his son after the first accident.

The print media was no better. The Times of India carried in detail views on the lookalikes of Amitabh and Sachin Tendulkar on what they thought of the Shahenshah's illness. The Sachin lookalike was asked, "Do you want Amitabh to get well?" which made no sense at all. Amidst all this, Amar Singh often spoke as though Amitabh Bachchan was God while son Abhishek was kept busy trying to shoo away reporters from anywhere near the 11th floor.

The coverage had the message that nothing else was happening in the country. But this was not so. Young viewers polled by Mid-Day agreed that the Volcker committee report was more important than the Amitabah soap opera. The media ignored the fact that one of the most famous music directors of Bollywood, OP Nayyar, was also admitted to the Lilavati hospital just before the Amitabh illness. The Uma Bharti revolt and the final One-Dayer between India and South Africa were also drowned in the flood of the Bachchan barrage. The Hindi channels were the worst in trivialising the Lilavati episode while NDTV 24x7 was the most dignified and to the point. Sreenivasan Jain on this channel was spot on with his matter-of-fact comments.

News is Big Business...

Trying to share the media limelight was the intriguing Volcker committee report. While most of the media wanted the head of former External Affairs Minister, Natwar Singh, The Hindu was restrained in its write-ups while pointing out that the report details were vague and that Volcker had left many questions unanswered. But the media always wants the blood of politicians who cannot hit back. Editor Vinod Mehta came out strongly against the media silence on the alleged involvement of nearly 130 Indian commercial firms (including the Tatas and the Ambanis) in Oil for Food deals with Iraq.

This media-Big Business nexus is now in the open. I remember the time when Dr Manmohan Singh's Cabinet was announced late one night. The NDTV announcer after reading out the name of a minister immediately asked an industrialist or businessman what he thought of the appointment. It was as though Big Business had to approve of the choices of the Prime Minister. These days the news readers' eyes light up whenever they mention the rising Sensex. How else can the channels have the indulgence of 10 minutes news and 20 minutes of breaks? There is this story going around about TV news readers finding it difficult to get life partners because of the feeling that at crucial stages of consummating the wedding they may burst out, "Wait, we have to take a break". Habits die hard, you know!

As is trivia...

A media watcher for over 30 years, I am distressed at the lack of news sense and the focus on trivia. Nothing is serious, we are told. Watching We the People show, I am often shocked that even while discussing serious issues like rape, child molestation and caste wars, the discussion often degenerates into a club-like atmosphere with laughter and giggles. What kind of conclusions can one draw from this mood of jollity?

I worked in an era when everyone had to be referred to as 'Mr' particularly in big newspapers. There are rotten eggs in politics but that did not mean you can refer to them by their first names. But on TV this trend is catching on. During the first few days of the Volcker revelations, sleepy-voiced Amitabh of NDTV kept on referring to 77-year-old Natwar Singh as 'Natwar' as though they were school chums. Today's media is also highly conscious of colour. Television anchors often sneer at Indian politicians but are all sweetness, courtesy and reasonableness while interviewing, say, Condoleeza Rice, one of the chief architects of the US invasion of Iraq. One programme had the anchor and a group of Indian youngsters who had nothing but praise for British Prime Minister Tony Blair and never once mentioned his lying to the British people, doctoring of British intelligence reports over Iraq and his reputation as a poodle of George Bush.

Media scream of 2005: Sania Mirza can change the world! Hasn't she already edited The Times of India?

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