Who is television’s police icon?
It has often been asked if the Taj Palace & Hotel in Mumbai is its lone icon for the television cameras to latch on to it and hysterically report on the goings on during the 26/11 terrorist attack.
Likewise, another question: is Hemant Karkare, the Anti-Terrorist Squad chief who was killed in the police vehicle with two others, the only icon of the life-sacrificing police force?
To my mind, the media as always is misguided. There are reasons, I suspect, why the media homes in on Karkare¿s family: Kavita Karkare is articulate in her Marathi-accented English, and comes up with quick, nice quotes or sound bytes? - And is quite photogenic. Three good reasons why TV crews cannot ignore her.
Only good thing – if one can call that – is the lady saying on the television – I think it was CNN-IBN’ Hemant, my husband show – that her daughter thinks that Kasab is just 21, misguided and brainwashed and should be given an opportunity to change! Every terrorist is brainwashed into joining the terror groups and is fed on hokum of religion to get him going and if one were to go by what was spouted, then well, we can stop our fight against terrorism.
The media, it seems, has suspended its judgement entirely.
But what about Assistant Sub-Inspector Tukaram Omble who found mention in parliament for his bravery? He stood to his spot, grappled the muzzle of the deadly Kalishnikov series weapon of Amir Ajmal Kasab even as he was pumped with bullets by the terrorist. Had he not done his duty the way he did, India would have quietly assigned the terror deed to some known, unknown, real, fictitious terror group and come out with platitudes.
If the terror issue has taken on the pitch it has between Pakistan and India, it is because Tukaram Omble did his job and in the true sense, martyred himself. But where is the regular footage after the one or two single item on him, his family etc. in the initial days? Everyone grieves for the loss of the lives of three officiers, Ashok Kamte, Vijay Salaskar and Hemant Karkare but they died because they were ambushed even before they could even lift a weapon at Kasab and his mate. But are they to be ¿martyred¿ by the media without providing the deserved hall of fame to Omble?
Much less footage has come out on Kamte and Salaskar and perhaps the media, especially the television is going by the pecking order? After all Omble and others who died rank lower and therefore, do not count?
The fairness doctrine in journalism is its life blood and fairness calls for even-handed treatment of issues but television lost its bearings and Rajdeep Sardesai and Barkha Dutt can scream themselves hoarse in support of their respective stances and come up with excuses for the conduct of the television as a news medium in real time. But that distorts realities and misleads the news hungry viewers. Much of the same could be said of the print medium as well.
This calls into question the way news media prioritises events and people. The way the print media, much in the style of the television, goes for the VIPs and the glamorous brigade and one is glad at the way Simi Grewal exposed her ignorance by screaming on one of Barkha Dutt’s show that there is a Pakistani flag fluttering atop every slum of Mumbai! TV and Barkha got what they deserved. The media must be asking questions on basic security issues of the common people because they are the most vulnerable but fails to do so. They would have a lot to say about how they are sitting ducks especially after the trains were bombed earlier with telling effect.
Let me narrate an incident I witnessed that should make all votaries of real time television journalism shudder.
Bal Thackeray had just released his party associate and former CM and Lok Sabha Speaker’s Diary and as usual, the television reporters rushed to him with cameras and microphones soon as the event was over. "What about the NDA – you are not in power now!? To that question, he responded: "I think small parties have moved away but not joined other formations. Soon as they realise we are closer to power once again, they would be with us. Difficult to say if the NDA is yet there or not; I think NDA as an idea remains"
What did Aaj Tak’s Sahil Joshi do? He went live with his back to Thackeray and told the viewers that Thackeray said that NDA was no more in existence. I question him soon after at the same venue and asked him why did he not give the entire perspective. I was ready to faint when he responded: "I have been told there are no major stories on the horizon today and I have been asked to ratchet up this story. Thackeray has not heard what I said. When he sees the re-run at home, he may call me over and give me an exclusive denial!"
That is the compulsion of 24X7 newscasts and truth is damned. As a journalist of 34 years, thankfully with a sober newspaper like The Hindu where editors did not make such silly suggestions to fill the pages, I was horrified, though I should have become thick-skinned by then.
When Chhagan Bhujbal house was attacked by Shiv Sainiks even as he was busy in legislative business close by in the Assembly, the Speaker, another journalist and I were watching the news telecast in Speaker Arun Gujarati’s chambers. The anchor who was trying to whip up a feverish coverage kept asking his correspondents across town as to "why the Shiv Sainiks have not yet come on to the streets" with similar mayhem in mind! We realised that if that did not stop soon, the sainiks may heed the channel and not Bal Thackeray and get before the helpful TV cameras.
That is why I agree with friend R Jagannathan’s view in DNA (http://epaper.dnaindia.com/epapermain.aspx?edorsup=Main&queryed=9&querypage=10&boxid=31379090&parentid=83659&eddate=01/08/2009) that the TV came close to pushing the country towards a war with Pakistan. Remember the New York editor’s dictat to his journalists in Cuba? "You supply the pictures, I will supply the war"? That’s the way Indian TV is going.
Television, if it continues with its genre would only be hurting itself and people like me would not shed a tear.