Sorry to begin with a massive rant on the eve of the new year, but it's been that kind of time.
The tsunami has wrecked the lives of hundreds of thousands of people, but it seems even an event of this magnitude is fair game for some people. I am talking here of what has been going on on television channels in the name of news coverage.
Politically affiliated channels - well, you and I know what stuff they are made of and what they are likely to do - they fulfilled expectations. Watch Sun TV in Tamil and you would think there is no government worth the name, what with the endless and unremitting tales of neglect. Admittedly, the Tamil Nade government (and others) did little and too late, but this was an attempt to gain political mileage at all costs. On the other hand, if you watched Jaya TV you would have thought the victims lacked nothing. It was Jayalalitha all over - visiting, listening, doling out stuff, etc, etc.
Okay, politically oriented entities will be crass. But exalted NDTV was no less of a relief. Their reporting was so in-your-face and insensitive it almost made me puke. I was appalled by their pruriently academic approach. The anchor says, "The situation is still developing and we will bring you the updates regularly" ('situation' must be the most sickeningly misused word in television news reporting in recent times).
Barkha Dutt at Nagapattinam spreads her arms in a dramatically expansive gesture and pouts infuriating platitudes on the "situation" and talks about "a graphic coming up" to display the death toll (I guess covering everything like an election is just one part of indelible legacy).
And Sonali Chander from the studio, "People must be suffering a lot. Can you take us through some of it?" or words to that effect; and then we are treated to a shockingly callous and graphic portrayal of people in the intense grief of their loss. The graphics were horrifying in their effect, but when you have reporters trudging the scene and showing close-ups of dead children and broken parents and talking about it all ("This is a mother who has lost her child and this is the body of the child..."), that betrays prurience and a sad lack of understanding.
And, of course, the jarring ads peppering the continuous coverage. Even the "crassly commercial" Americans lay off the ads during 9/11.
Finally, how can I forget the indiatimes.com headlines during the tsunami scare on December 30, which gave the impression that mega waves had already hit Chennai when the story inside said nothing of the sort...?
Or the Times of India story on the Sri Lankan cricketers cutting short their tour of New Zealand very flippantly slugged "Hell and High Water"...? You might say: "Cleverness is all!"
