7.10.09

Is this news?

'Beheaded cop's son vows revenge on Maoists', screams this headline. The said boy is a mere 7-years-old. There is a link to the video where the boy is crying on camera.

What did the reporter(s) think when the boy said those words? Did they feel they had to protect the child because he has lost his father? Or did they think it was a brilliant sound byte? Given it's making headlines and should possibly garner hit counts... I don't think there was any thought for the child involved.

The brilliant reporter is further heard prompting the child, "Papa ka naam bolo." (Say your father's name) Was there any thought before airing that video? WAS IT NECESSARY?

And I wonder how the reporter got that byte. Did she perhaps ask, "Aap ko kaisa lag raha hai?" (How are you feeling?)

Disgusted.

11 comments:

soin said...

when the country is going to the dogs its imperative that such bastards are in such jobs..india has more news channels these days than normal ones..and it sucks big time..free

Sankoobaba said...

they fill up shitheads in their news agency only one person in each agency will know what journalism means... majority are jst mass media grads turned wannabe journos....but know shit nothing about journalism...

JB said...

@ Soin, Sankoo: i wouldn't go as far as calling them bastards etc; however, I don't feel comfortable with the whole video and headline. Particularly since I suspect that the boy was perhaps prompted to say things on those lines...

Mita said...

It was bad enough seeing clippings of the policemen sans head, and then head sans body. Even my 4 yr old noticed it and I quickly flipped the channel. And then they hound the poor child,
This seems to be the trend after 26/11. Journalists asking grieving relatives "how are they feeling?" Oh please, viewers arent dumb, and neither do we need to see this.

abhi said...

It is infact revolting to normal people like me who are nowhere close to journalism but are bound to switch on the news channels once back home from work. Probably to know how many more died in which weird part of the country. India TCV started it and now it seems that the spicy (read cauliflower-for-brains) news is the "in thing" with all the channels, even those that had some sort of reputation. Cant we have a "janata vote" on what we want to see and hear? Anyways....sad...I wish CNN or BBS for that matter covered India as well....would have spared me the stupidity of going to these channels every day and hoping that some sensible news and analysis will be there.

PS said...

If you've noticed, it's usually the young ones who come up with such sensational crap. Somebody needs to hold them morally accountable seeing that they themselves don't.

Depressing video.

The Dude said...

that truly is disgusting.. nothing wrong with the kid saying it or the fact that it was on film, but the fact that it was intentionally recorded in that manner and there was prompting of the child for a more eye-catching header.
sad what journalism is being reduced to, and to make it worse decent genuine journalists will suffer because of these byte mongers who have neither intelligence nor integrity.

Mystique said...

UGh. just, UGH

Eveline said...

Infuriating - in the almost-throwing-stuff-at-the-TV infuriating - by the some of media's obliviousness. I know we're giving these poor excuses for humanity more attention than they deserve, that we're probably giving them just what they're looking for. But honestly, maybe we need to pay more attention to them and call them out for what they are - the perfect example of some of the worst our society has to offer.

Haddock said...

When a person is agitated you can provoke him to say anything. You have to just give him directions (in this case put words in his mouth)
Ratings, ratings is all that matters in TV

Anonymous said...

Its worthless news. But you know, that's how the media works. But hey...it might help the kid. Who knows...? Remember the Gujarat riot "vitcim" ...some Ansari I think...ah yes... Qutubuddin Ansari... who had his photo clicked with folded hands apparently begging for mercy. I remember laughing my sides out when I saw that photograph. The photograph told an impossible story of a man begging for mercy from camera crews and made one wonder how many hours the photographer had spent using photoshop to create special effects on the eyes... but it worked. It worked for the reporter and the Ansari guy. So, who knows?

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