Mumbai and the Media Circus

Jr. — Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

I was flipping through news channels today morning to get as many angles into the terrorist story as possible…..

And, I came across a rather interesting remark on the channel Times Now..

The anchor was saying : ” Here at Times Now, we make sure that we do not compromise the safety of the commandos who are carrying out the operation, or the people they are trying to rescue. Unlike other news channels, we do not believe in giving the terrorists a forum to air their views, and hence, have not tried to establish contact with them.. etc etc.. “

Thing is, the guy had a very valid point…

I remember seeing the footage on lots of the news channels, and wondering how compromised the security forces would be if the terrorists had managed to get a feed…

Make no mistake though, the Times Now people are not the angels of the media sector or anything..

They were just taking a stand and saying ” Hey, look, our product is different !! Screw HT and CNN IBN !! ”

I recall vaguely, a time when there was Doordarshan, and Doordarshan.. Nothing else..

How dramatically has our country’s media sector changed.. Though, by some counts, this is hardly a positive aspect..

Cut throat competition has lead to a dramatic decrease in work ethics….

A friend once told me that if something wasn’t different, it wasn’t marketable.. Though, when it comes to issues such as these, one has to draw a line and decide how far they are willing to go to be different…..

Channels like, Headlines Today for example, have become the national Malayala Manoramas… Unnecessary dramatisation is their forte….

How come such irresponsible people have the jobs of informing and educating the public??Similar Posts:

One Among Many : Mumbai

Jr. — Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

I once read somewhere that one man’s terrorist is another man’s national hero…

Like the entire Indian nation, I was watching the coverage of the Mumbai attacks, and couldn’t help feeling horrified and enraged at the carnage…

Found myself wondering who would refer to these men as heroes??

What do they believe in? Why are they doing this? What do they expect to achieve?

And as any good netizen, I asked my good friend Wik I Pedia..

And this is something I came across…

“Within Islamic jurisprudence jihad is the only form of warfare permissible under Islamic law, and may be declared against apostates, rebels, highway robbers, violent groups, non-Islamic leaders or non-Muslim combatants, but there are other ways to perform jihad as well, including civil disobedience. The primary aim of jihad as warfare is not the conversion of non-Muslims to Islam by force, but rather the expansion and defense of the Islamic state”

This is what drove these men… This is what they believed they achieved everytime they hurled a grenade or emptied a clip into innocent by standers…

Now, I’m not blaming the Qur’an, or the Bible; or the Gita…

I’m blaming the people who endorsed all these stupid rituals through all these years..

Basically, that would mean, YOU and ME !!

Every time we say, “I’m not this, because I’m that”, we’re inviting a conflict.. Substantiating it.. Endorsing hate..

This, ladies and gentlemen, is humanity’s biggest problem…

And everyday we fail to address this problem, is another failure; its yet another innocent life lost; its more added guilt on our shoulders…

Take the Crusades, or the Inquisitions, or the World Wars.. Or jihad..

See the pattern yet??

How much more can we endure??

And, to my not so good friends, the terrorists, let me say… You failed.. You failed big time…

You hoped to upset this nation and it’s people and make them bow down to you….

What did you achieve though??

This nation and it’s people are as resilient as ever.. And you have disgraced your own chosen religion, or sect or whatever, in hope of changing tomorrow.. You will go down in history as cowards, who did’nt speak like men, but hid like cowards… Who killed those who didn’t have the means to defend themselves.. Like cowards..

And also, to another one of my not so good friends, Mr. Thackeray, let me say..

See? This is the kind of hate that people like you breed….

For you, yesterday, there were three, four kinds of Indians.. What about now??

“The oldest of foes, unite against a common enemy.” I have heard.. So Mr. Thackeray, maybe it’s high time you realised that there is only one kind of Indian.. And that is the PROUD Indian.. It’s probably high time you joined the bandwagon…

The offensive is still going on.. Wonder how many more will lose their lives in this meaningless massacre…

But, no matter what happens, tomorrow, nothing will have changed.. We will be the same hateful people we were before this all started.. But, we do have a CHOICE… We ALWAYS have a choice…

They say that it’s not how hard you fall that matters, but how quickly you get up, that matters.. I think, it’s not how quick that matters, but how efficiently…

I hope somebody realised why we fell so hard…Similar Posts:

Disruptive Technologies, Education and Some Social Issues » attacks

Mumbai and the Media Circus

One Among Many : Mumbai