Cut the crap
Taken from our blog - "https://nightandfireflies.wordpress.com/2020/06/29/cut-the-crap/"
Readers who land on my page must be wondering, “What a scene it is, ‘night lightened by fireflies’, serene!”.
Mesmerizing, I would agree.
But then I disappoint you with the heading of my first write-up. A stark contrast. Anger and dissatisfaction clamoured for attention. Well, my friend, then that is what the world is turning to now. Isn’t it?
In the 90s when I was growing up, news back then was how news should have been now. No kidding!
Why? Because the news was read to you. For a child like me back then, he sees calm news anchors presenting the news, without stressing, without imposing but reading as if you are singing a lullaby. (Now, I am not talking about the content here but the way of presentation)
Fast forward to 2020 – The scene setup by my domain name – the beautiful night filled with yellow lanterns floating in the sky is now – filled with a burning forest.
At present, newsrooms are filled with a bunch of idiots on the pretext of debating but originally promoting violence. Not all but the majority.
Before I say further, there is this wonderful quote from Zbigniew Brzezinski:
“Shortly, the public will be unable to reason or think for themselves. They’ll only be able to parrot the information they’ve been given on the previous night’s news.”
Most of them are party owned. They redirect them – “Hey those are my wings (political), remember? So, well if you do, then you must fly there… in the direction I say so. Got it?”
The channels feed you with the perspectives of the one who own them. Not the general view.
Breaking news is the channel’s verdict that they try to impose on your minds without allowing you to think for a second. More irritating are the names of the sponsors flashed every now and then to show an act of repayment for their kindness in investing.
The bold and elephant-sized letters cover half of the screen. On a few channels, they have a much larger share. The anchors are wonderful actors. If something terrible happened to something of their interest, they shower sympathies. They yell at the ones questioning their views.
It doesn’t matter if the news is right or wrong. All that does are ‘their’ views.
Debates nowadays are worse than a scene in a bazaar(market). Candidates bargaining for time. Accusations and profanities hurled at each other. The anchor, who sets the fire, play favouritism. Some of the channels go to the extent of reflecting their views by captioning. Under one it reads, “for the country”. The other is labelled, “speaks for anti-national”. And with innocence, they ask the viewers to judge and condemn this fool who is against us. To be frank, I agree that they are indeed fools who walk-in knowingly to the spot where the decision is already made. Perhaps, they go to show that they are not afraid.
Now if it wasn’t enough, to connect the youth, they start the hashtags. It doesn’t matter if the youth post negative comments, as long as they use the hashtags they are fine with it. For them what matters are the numbers.
“Yes, ladies and gentlemen, we have 700 people currently talking about this. You are in favour or not, we are selling. We are making business. Who cares about the rest?”
The endeavours don’t end there. They have titles mentioning why they are first. How their dedicated team of reporters are everywhere, no matter if the news is fake or not. We cover all.
Of course, aesthetics help in business but the content should not be used for such. Reporters interview the affected with disturbing questions. Suicide becomes a hit wicket. Reading WhatsApp forwarded messages on the live news. Making something sensational only to forget them after they get better TRP content. Hatred combined with threatening. Taking the name of “journalism” to defend. The list goes on.
Perhaps, this is where we should stop believing what we see.
Of course, not all news channels are like that, there are good ones too. And that’s for you to decide. I am no journalist to comment on journalism, nor an entrepreneur on how to do the business. But I am the one who is listening. I am the audience who you are trying to sell your business. Show some respect.