Mumbai blasts--Letters to the Hoot

IN Opinion | 04/12/2008

Dear Hoot –

I support THEHOOT.org

As a South Asian voice on/in the media – your relevance in today¿s exceptional times is undeniable.  

Media on both sides of the border has stopped reporting and started indulging in senseless rants. The media, particularly in India seems to have thrown logic to the wind. The screaming for war on the Indian side has reached a din.  

The media is manufacturing consent for a war and manufacturing consent for the very people who they are blaming – the politicians.   

I can see strong parallels to the attacks on Afghanistan post 9-11 and the myths around the WMDs. The lessons that one can learn are obvious. Unfortunately history has a strange and sad way of repeating itself. Indian media - seems to be caught up in rivalry and is ignoring the writing on the wall.  

There is probably a battle for survival being fought out (in the media world) amongst comeptitors in these tough and recessionary times. The channels and print houses with the highest TRPs (for the Mumbai terror strike) will probably still be alive same time next year. While the bottom half will probably find themselves closing shutters in a fast consolidating market. This desperate situation is probably forcing a lot of bad journalism. But is no excuse to manufacture consent on a unilateral strike against Pakistan.

The last few days have proven beyond an iota of doubt that the media needs to be accountable for it says and does and needs to be regulate. Kind of like the politicians in this country and across the border.

Is there any way in which The Hoot can help restore sanity (on both sides of the border)?

Unethical Reporting - Enough is Enough.

Thank You 

Anand Bala

Balasubramanyan@gmail.com

Bangalore

Dear Editor,

The round-the-clock coverage of the attack on Mumbai extended to CNN in the US, where starting from the day before Thanksgiving (the 26th) through to Sunday (the 30th), the channel broadcasted live and semi-live images coming out of Mumbai. Most of the coverage was based on CNN IBN¿s and International¿s input and occasionally, from Star News. With most regulars at CNN out for holidays, it is a moot question whether the coverage would have continued had the attacks taken place during regular working days. 

Amidst the shock and the drama, a lighter note was struck for the Indian viewer - foreign reporters could not get used to the idea that during such an incident, the public was allowed to watch the proceedings and generally mill around the Taj and Oberoi Hotels as closely as they did. The clippings shown also did not help; while images showed hundreds of people watching on as firings continued within the Taj, the news anchors continued to speculate where the police were. According to the most accepted explanation, most of the police officers were present inside the Taj, fighting with the terrorists, as they weren¿t around outside to draw the public away to safer zones, ("as would have happened in the US or in Europe"). A reporter for CNN International mentioned that on the morning of the 27^th, she had walked up to the lobby area of the hotel without any one stopping her, and then scuttled back based on her own judgement. 

While one is used to seeing people gathered around scenes of blasts in India, it does raise the question of what would have happened in this case had one of the terrorists decided to look out through a window and let loose a few rounds of fire.

 Thanks,

Pratibha Krishnamurthy