Can news reporting get any worse?

We have seen news reporting getting bad and embarrassing in the run for ¿breaking news¿ on TV channels but never visualised that it can get as bad as this!

The news in reference is the coverage about an unsolicited guest - snake - in a senior MLA¿s house in Karnataka.  A live story of 15 minutes on a Kannada channel!

The MLA¿s daughter  saw a snake creeping in to their house and immediately called the DCP, Bangalore to arrest the sneaker.  The snake catchers, ordered by the police chief, arrived at the venue with in fifteen minutes and successfully nabbed the terrorist snake.  The News reader in the studio was lucky enough to get a live reaction from the MLA¿s daughter on the ¿successful operation¿.  The viewers sighed in relief when the reporter on live coverage concluded with the ¿all ended well¿ note with inputs from the family members.

But that was not all.  There was more to come, from the news desk.  A quick look into the archive and there was an increase in the instances of snakes sneaking into politicians residences, of late.  This piece of information was sufficient to stretch the breaking news capsule with analytical inputs, definitely an edge over the other channels, in case  anybody else had got the exclusive news.

A friend from Puttur was stunned to see this bulletin.  He was already in a state of shock because of the response from one of the daily newspapers about his feature story on farmers¿ plight, the same day.  He was asked to cut it short to 500 words as it was no more a prominent issue.  And he was treated to the breaking news of the sneaker snake when he was still trying to find answer to the question what constitutes prominence for news media?

Marathon live coverage of the rescue operations to save a boy from the abandoned bore well tube, from the same TV channel months ago, had raised questions about media responsibilities in reporting crisis and disasters.

The hype created by this coverage had led to premature announcement of relief to the family of the child by the government, which in turn led to mass protest by the villagers and onlookers at the site of the rescue operations, who had gathered in thousands, thanks to the live coverage!  The mob was sufficiently instigated to protest against the CM for not visiting the site, thanks again to reporter¿s observation on the serious lapse on the part of the CM.

TV viewers still remember the visuals of the poor street dogs declared as ¿man eaters¿ and the fear it had created about the ¿most trusted animal friend¿.  There is no difference of opinion about the fact that street dog menace has become an issue.  But that does not mean all street dogs are man eaters, argued common people.

A young friend sitting next to me hints that  the next breaking news on the channel - live coverage of rape!

Can news coverage get any more disgusting?

Sathya S.
Bangalore
18 August, 07