Visual Media jumps the gun again!

IN Opinion | 01/12/2006

Letter to the Hoot: None of the news channels offered a retraction of their earlier mistake or apologized for misreporting.

The visual media (English) was occupied till mid afternoon with Ganguly`s return and the Dalit protests, in that order of priority, when the news tickers went off in frenzy over a reported bomb scare in Parliament.

Most of the major news channels, including CNN-IBN, NDTV and Times Now reported about an unknown bag which in the next banner was reported to contain explosives (CNN-IBN). As I watched in horror expecting the worst to have happened suddenly the news story did not carry as much weight in subsequent bulletins.

In an attempt to outdo one another the media committed the ultimate faux pas as it turned out to be a security drill caused by the unknown bag. A watered down version reporting the same was aired in the evening bulletins, where the term explosives was dropped.

The fact that the bag may not contain explosives was completely overlooked as they chose to run with, at that point what could only be perceived as, speculation. These media outlets which claim to be the bastions of exclusive reporting have shown complete disregard to accuracy in this case.

None of the news channels offered a retraction of their earlier mistake or apologized for misreporting. The media takes their audience for granted, expecting them to comply with such gross misrepresentations as a part of the `routine` reportage.

It is time the news channels introspect, shun mediocrity in journalism and concede their mistakes.

Hemant Morajkar C-5/7, Jeevan Veer Coop Soc, LIC Colony, Borivli (west) Mumbai-400103.

November 30, 2006

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