If your senses have been numbed of late by a series of news regarding aliens landing on earth, a car that moves without a driver, a lot of ghost stories on primetime news channel.. Don't worry.. In all probability, you are watching Aaj Tak or Headlines Today.
No! I am not a crusader against the Living Media Group. In fact I have long been one of their most ardent fans since I was in my 8th grade. Every week, I remember waiting for the latest copy of India Today coming home. Those were the days!! But now??..nay!!
Aaj Tak and HT which are news channels under the same Group have left me baffled with the tumbling standards of news that are telecast. I remember, they had started off very well back in 2001 if I am not wrong. But it has become a trend over the last couple of years to unnecessarily sensationalize news and everything that comes with it. And frankly I have been seriously sad over what has been happening. How can a news channel be showing such kind of pathetic news stories?
The final nail on the coffin was hit a couple of days back during a one-hour programming on India's first innings of the ongoing second test match versus Sri Lanka. The Indian middle order had collapsed after a superb start by the openers. Now, Aaj Tak was upto it. Dissecting Sourav Ganguly, Rahul Dravid and.....er... Sachin Tendulkar! Now, this is not the first time Aaj Tak has been on their back. Yes, there are a few around who feel that its probably time for the first two. But Sachin Tendulkar? He was number 1 on ICC rankings till he took a break 2 months back. He was India's most consistent performer in the last calendar. Even Ganguly was the second most prolific scorer in Test matches last year. This is just not how you treat your sporting heroes. If this is how sporting icons are treated, I wonder why we long for an Olympic Champion!!
The most disappointing fact was that Kapil Dev was party to the proceedings. Ya, Kapil can criticize cricketers if he wants. But I couldn't help laughing when the anchor of the show was finding flaws in Tendulkar's technique. In his words: " Batsmen should always play with a straight bat. Of late, Tendulkar's bat has been coming down at an angle." O Lord, that was the nadir! A TV anchor ( I forgot his name, good that I did) advising arguably the best batsman of all time??? I couldn't help it anymore.
I do agree that journalists and newsmakers have the right to criticize and dissect. But doing it just for the sake of doing it doesnt make sense. Add to that the amount sensationalized news that pops up every now and then on the Aaj Tak screen as that of the aliens landing. And going to the extent of showing live pictures of them moving around. Who justifies that? ZOOM gives me similar news. I think its time someone does a cleaning up job. I think its high time.
As I was almost changing the channel I just glanced the Aaj Tak logo. It had the word " Sarvashresht" inscribed. Wonder what that meant!!!
Meanwhile the aliens might be laughing!!!
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