SIGHT & SOUND
Only bad news is news
Amita Malik

The dictum that only bad news is news was drummed into me during a visit to The New York Times in New York when I was young. Who cares for good news, I was asked. Well, I did, I said, but that was only met with a cynical smile, the idealism of a young journalist. But watching Indian TV, and for that matter CNN and the BBC, the journalist in New

York has certainly proved his case. We had barely got over the Jayalalithaa vs The Hindu story, played to the hilt by every channel, when at the time of writing we are in the thick of the Judeo scandal. But there is a vast difference between the two stories. One, The Hindu story involved a fight for principles, and an important point of law and privileges also came into it. But the Judeo story is a political scandal, another Tehelka-style tape which some channels also showed. And the journalists who filed the story had their houses attacked. Of course there was also the little matter of trains from the North-East being attacked in Bihar and innocent passengers being beaten with lathis and worse, and inevitably retaliatory bandhs in Assam.

The BBC and CNN kept on showing us attacks by US soldiers on Iraqi households. They dragged out old men, women and children and destroyed their homes. The aggressive soldiers never seem to take on people their own size. Then there was the helicopter collision and the Bush visit to London with its awesome security, but where protests were allowed as a matter of democratic right. It gave us an insight into freedom of the media as well.

Looking desperately for good news, of course there was the cricket semi-final where we thrashed the Kiwis. Also, most channels did well on Children’s Day. Some of the programmes were a little contrived, but I enjoyed NDTV: children from Bangalore did some spot reporting with professional assurance. I am also glad that two channels did justice to the 50-year celebrations of the Film Institute in Pune. Aaj Tak’s reporter used his roving camera and sound recorder well and gave us the background of the institute while not leaving out the stars. Sahara Samay also did a neat job. Predictably, DD News played up old suspects Jaya Bachchan, Shabana Azmi at the cost of many other famous ex-students and teachers there, such as Ritwik Ghatak.

Having discussed what constitutes news in our troubled world, let us take up again the rather reckless statements being flung about by an obviously nervous CEO of Prasar Bharati. Having first trashed the independent news channels as "garbage", he then proceeded to copy the format of the garbage channels and hire some of their leading anchors. Then in another example of undignified PR, he stated that the independent channels were sensational, while DD was sober and responsible. Now the trouble with generalist government servants who run the media without a background in this highly specialised field, is that they can never look beyond their immediate bosses and the government. The CEO should realise that the independent channels are lively and interesting, because they are in competition, whereas DD is supported by government funds and can do without competition and is therefore dull and pedestrian. It would be better to let the new DD news channel quietly settle down and find its feet.