Juggling the breaking news…
The problems with 24x7 television news became apparent once again when news of former President A.P.J. Abdul Kalam’s death arrived on Monday evening. Kalam suffered a cardiac arrest while delivering a lecture at IIM Shillong. He was immediately rushed to Bethany hospital but was pronounced dead on arrival.
His death happened on the same day that terrorists struck in Gurdaspur in Punjab, so before the news of Kalam’s demise came, it was clear that the nightly debates had been prepared around the terror attack. Most media houses maintain faux-obits of famous personalities in case of a sudden death but clearly this was not done in Kalam’s case.
In its primetime bulletin, India Today TV went with playing endless snippets from Kalam’s life and connected via phone to various politicians. Former President Pratibha Patil spoke, but someone forgot to mention to her that she was on a national English TV channel. She offered her condolences in Marathi.
Lok Sabha speaker Sumitra Mahajan was also caught unawares by Kalam’s death and regaled viewers with personal but useless snippets from the time she travelled with him to the Philippines. The lack of preparation especially jarred when, within 30 minutes, Rajdeep Sardesai, consulting editor with India Today TV, ran out of talking points and the discussion shifted to Kalam’s hairstyle.
On NDTV 24x7, Barkha Dutt tried hard to segue news of Kalam’s death into a discussion on Gurdaspur. She had put together a panel that included security experts and Punjab politicians. One moment, the discussion was about Gurdaspur with shots from the encounter filling the screen, the next moment, the story was different. One Akali leader started his contribution by paying tribute to Kalam during which the TV screen switched to grabs of Kalam with children.
To be sure, the news of the death had come just as the TV channels were getting into their prime time debates but there was still too much confusion. What they could have done was to stick to Gurdaspur at 9, and return with a Kalam-only package at 10.
The situation was somewhat better on NDTV India where Ravish Kumar did not run with the story until late evening, by when news of Kalam’s death had been confirmed. He gave up on his original discussion entirely and switched to Kalam.
In fact, the online editions of some news channels did better. Times Now put up its entire cache of Kalam-related news videos on its YouTube channel. This was not only informative but also put some of the coverage of his death in perspective. No one, for instance, had spoken up about the messy political battle that ensued when Kalam expressed an interest in a second term as President in 2007, provided he was selected unanimously. When the Left and Shiv Sena declined to support him, he withdrew his candidature.
There was also no mention of the time Kalam was frisked at John F. Kennedy Airport in New York, an incident that sparked a diplomatic row between India and the US, prompting the latter to apologise. Both these stories were available to watch on Times Now’s YouTube channel.
By Tuesday morning, however, the channels had upped their game. Nearly all channels led their 6 am bulletins with detailed packages on Kalam. These included references not merely to his scientific prowess and role as President, but also details of his frugal private life. On CNN IBN, former ISRO chief K. Kasturirangan recounted the time he visited Kalam in Rashtrapati Bhavan and was surprised to see a “lungi hanging over the wall and a veena placed next to it”. Such details made the CNN-IBN package stand out.
When breaking news of this sort happens, the print media has an upper hand since they have the time to collect information and publish perspective pieces. Nearly all major newspapers on Tuesday morning led with Kalam’s death, but the Times of India’s innovative advertising practices left a bad taste. The paper ran with a black and white front page in order that Epson could advertise its colour printers at the bottom. On a day when two major breaking stories – Kalam and Gurdaspur – were competing for space, the paper could have done away with advertising play.
When it comes to online outlets, they filled a space left unattended by the mainstream media. DailyO did a story titled “Kalam’s smile was deadly” and Buzzfeed published “9 of Dr. A.P.J. Abdul Kalam’s Most Inspirational Quotes”. As is the wont of online media, the tone was informal but not irreverent. These stories presented the little known side of a man who loved children and had playful a sense of humour.
Which brings us to what news consumers expect from the different strands of the media. Print is still considered the medium of record so that is where readers will look for pieces which dwell on Kalam’s legacy. Online is okay for the lighter stuff, while television exists somewhere in the middle, buoyed of course by its ability to show footage. In fact, television channels should keep packages on famous personalities ready so that they can updated and put out as soon as the news arrives of their death. The only problem with this state of preparedness is that it is Murphy’s law that if an obituary is ready, it will somehow sneak its way into print when the person isn’t dead.
In 2014, People magazine published a pre-written obituary of Kirk Douglas who was – and still is – alive. The headline was ‘DO NOT PUB’. (In case you are wondering, Douglas is still around, aged 98).