Cutting Edge Lazy Journalism

SANTOSH DESAI

“YOU WOULD THINK a press release about a Nazi war criminal named Johann Bach being caught in the jungles of Goa after trying to sell a stolen 18th-century piano would be worth double-checking”, begins Jonathan Allen’s post in the Reuters blogs. He is of course, commenting on the astonishing gullibility of the mainstream Indian media in swallowing the claim made by the intelligence agency Perus Knarp (super Prank) with the motto “Eht rea enp cabk skripc”, (The Pen Pricks are back) without bothering to double check the facts. As the blog points out, it took 0.13 seconds to verify that the concentration camp that Bach allegedly ran did not exist. And yet, The Indian Express, The Telegraph and Deccan Herald ran the story, each adding some embellishments of their own. As another site points out, no newspaper has apologised, with The Indian Express blaming the hoax on faulty local intelligence and The Telegraph hedging its bets by claiming that ‘some blogs ‘ have described the story as a hoax. The real winner in all this is, of course, DNA. The paper ran the story a full day after it was revealed to be a hoax. Gives the whole idea of lazy journalism a cutting edge.

The media storm over Shinchini, the young girl allegedly traumatised by the harsh criticism offered by judges at a reality show continues. In keeping with the new protocol of news making, channels blazed judgement first and facts later. What is noticeable is the desire of all parties to exploit the full sensationalist potential of any event before any facts can arrive to temper its potency. So, not only did we have the channels and the newspapers going at it, do-gooding activists were not to be left behind. The blame game expanded beyond the producers of the show and the judges. TOI reported NCPCR’s Sandhya Bajaj ‘not ruling out stringent action if the parents were found to be overzealous in pushing their daughter to perform’. What action, pray, that might be? Arrest them? Confiscate their daughter?

HT’s luxury rag, Splurge, carried a photograph on its front page captioned ‘Model Navina Bhatia is seen in the company of a Rolls Royce Phantom dressed in a Christian Dior creation, with a limited edition Karenina bag’. As a summary of what the supplement carries, that’s a hard one to beat. The main newspaper meanwhile carried on its front page a report about “City Prepares to party with Bollywood’s Hottest”, a straightforward plug of a marketing promotion for HT City masquerading as news.

Finally, Rakhi Sawant is back. The monsoons have arrived. Let the rain dance begin.

Desai is the MD and CEO of Futurebrands.
santosh365@gmail.com