Breaking News or Views!

Unlike many senior citizens who sit glued to a TV set whenever they have spare time (which they have in plenty), I hardly watch television these days. My television viewing is restricted to watching  the news channels an hour before going to bed. Most of the channels seem to be “Breaking (the) News” with the same news  from morning till evening, with every channel claiming  that they are the first to telecast that  particular news. When you get fed up of watching the same news repeatedly  on one channel and try to surf the other news channels-  you find the same breaking news being featured in those  channels too!

Nowadays most of the advertising clips are also the same at any point of time.  I am told that some whiz kids in the Ad Media world came up with the idea of broadcasting the same television commercials  in all the selected channels at the same time, so that even if the viewers skip a channel during ad breaks to go to another news channel, they will find the same commercials running. The ad guys surely know how to get the ‘eyeballs’ of their target audience!

 Then there are the mandatory debates on every Breaking News topic. It is most irritating to see the anchor becoming  the chief judge, conducting a trial by media, cross questioning a bunch of experts that his channel is  able to assemble at short notice. Most of the channels also have their favorite panelists  who appear in their programmes every day. I often wonder how the same experts appear live on different channels at the same time. I have realized that participating in any debate on a news channel requires special skills – to say what you want to say ignoring the constant interjections  by both the anchor and the fellow panelists! Some of the anchors are so obnoxious – they shout at the top of their voices, bulldozing their pre-conceived views  on the panelists,  aggressively  forcing them to agree to their own point of view.

I derive enormous pleasure when I find an articulate and intelligent panelist gives it back to the anchor in the same coin. Some even threaten to walk out of a discussion if the anchor does not allow them to express their views. Like what the late Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu Selvi Jayalalitha did in a  `Devil`s Advocate` programme on CNN IBN some years ago. Fed up with the provocative attitude of the anchor when she got up to leave midway, the `Devil` (Karan Thapar) tried to tell her “It was a pleasure having you in the programme”. She snubbed him, “ It was no pleasure talking to you” and walked out. Another person who was notorious for snubbing the anchors was that `enfant terrible` Lawyer (late) Jethmalani.

 Sometimes, the debates end up becoming shouting matches between panelists, especially when politicians from opposing parties are involved. While I hate the TV debates, I watch them ensnared by the eloquence of some of the panelists. I really admire their abilities to think on their feet or shall we say think on their seats!

 Like millions of people in this country I still prefer my morning newspaper for a comprehensive coverage of national, state and local news. Television can never give me the kind of joy I derive reading a newspaper as most of the times television is only giving views and not news!

 I was surprised recently to see a programme titled `Breaking Views` being telecast by NDTV immediately following their 8 pm news. I wonder how the channel got to read my mind!