“Film maker, TV producer, businesswoman, writer, blogger, teacher and the main slave to an imperious hound”, Harini Calamur on the Indian media’s reaction to the detention of movie star Shah Rukh Khan by officials at Newark airport:
“At first, when my nani called me up to tell me that SRK was arrested in the USA, I thought that they had sent him to Gitmo! Then I realised it was a 2-hour stop at the airport. I wonder how much airtime was spent on this—and to the exclusion of what?—and how much money did the “news” channels make….
“On the day SRK got detained for two hours, 21 farmers committed suicide in Andhra Pradesh because they can’t pay off their debt. But, farmers committing suicide cannot be sponsored, it does not drive up TRP’s and it definitely is not conducive for off the cuff ranting by our esteemed ‘journalists’.
With the kind of issues occupying television airtime, Calamur goes on to suggest that it is probably time to rename 24-hour news channels.
“24 hour blogs—one can say—but that too,would be unkind. There a whole bunch of bloggers whom I follow and whose integrity and intent I respect—even if I differ with them on their views. There isn’t a single TV journalist I can put in the same category.”
By the way, CNN-IBN has a half-hour show tonight, hosted by Sagarika Ghose.
The question of the day: “Are we over-reacting to SRK’s detention?”
Read the full article: 24-hour infomercials
Also read: ‘Where was the media’s outrage when Narendra Modi was denied a visa?’
IJR 