news « Karthick Raghavan

I strongly think that NDTV is blowing up things with their recent NDTV Exclusives . Particularly, the incidents quoted below raises a few questions, in my mind, on the motto of the news they air. NDTV has been airing these incidents non-stop for 24 hours. Is it done for hype or for commercial things?

News 1

In the recently concluded ICC Champions Trophy 2006, Australia were roped into a controversy that they nudged Pawar out of the podium during the prize distribution ceremony. When Pawar brushed aside the issue as nothing serious and unintentional, NDTV aired the footage at least a hundred times. It hyped the issue with opinion interviews from current and yesteryear cricketers, politicians et all. A few days later, Australian captain Ricky Ponting offered to apologise for the team’s action. He wanted to speak to the BCCI president Pawar and find whether the latter was offended or the media was making a mountain out of a molehill. Today, Pawar calls the nudging action as uncivilised.

Did Pawar change his mind after watching the footage for hours?

News 2

With much controversy surrounding the Delhi sealings, NDTV is into it again and is trying to make most out of it with its exclusive coverage. Apart from playing footages of the Delhi sealings, it is showing tickers which have the latest list of places that are sealed. An example which I saw in the ticker goes like this, The Haldiram’s restaurant in some part of Delhi is sealed . It has been running this ticker all day today.

Wouldn’t this spark violence among people if they are shown a thing over and over again? I have read somewhere that it is easy to influence people’s mind by playing a footage over and over again.

News 3

Ace Pakistan fast bowler Shoaib Akthar gets into controversy for disciplinary issues. This is again a NDTV Exclusive. Already into trouble for being accused of using performance enhancing drugs, Shoaib Akthar is getting into more trouble with news that he slapped the Pakistan cricket coach Bob Woolmer and involved in a disco brawl and mis-behaved with Indian coach Greg Chappel’s wife. NDTV has got a news to chew for several days. Already it has started airing opinion interviews about this and is creating a controversy out of this.

I don’t understand where NDTV is heading with this. Either they are trying to become the more popular channel featuring controversial news or they are doing this for commericial things. Whatever, If this hyping continues, I may think of switching over to some other news channel.

What do you think?

Started the day today with Deccan chronicles’s e-paper. Thumbing through the pages, I was in for a shock when I reached the supllementary (chennai chronicle). It had an article on how cine stars are pestered by over-enthusiastic fans and how they should tackle them. It related certain incidences where cine stars are bugged by some of their own fans. Excerpts from certain stars were also given. Arya’s (an upcoming tamil actor) views shocked me. I am quoting tha daily’s exact words here.
Arya feels that Kollywood is a far safer industry than Bollywood. “Compared to the kind of mafia threats that Bollywood stars face, the Tamil film industry is much more peaceful. Take the case of Martina Hinges who was stabbed by her fan. Her career is ruined. A situation like Suriya’s is critical and sensitive and it is definitely unwarranted. We as stars try and satisfy our fans to a large extent, but they expect us to talk to them whenev er they want and always be nice and approachable. When we don’t due to work pressure, they tend to resort to such means, which is ridiculous,” he says. ”

Is it not Monika Seles who was stabbed on her back by a die-hard Stefi Graf fan?

I am not sure whose negligence this could be. Is it DC’s or Arya’s ? Deccan chronicle has made it a habit of committing mistakes often. I am thinking of switching back to “The Hindu“.

“Quality never compromises with money“. It is true. For one rupee, you cannot expect quality.