ET has over the overs seen a dramatic fall in editorial standards. Every serious incident on the business front is a joke for them. Be it the FM presenting his budget or Manmohan singh talking about the economy, caricatures depict them in cheap bollywood garb. ET’s penchant for comic portrayals and its Bollywood fixation seem to very evident. Reports are shallow in content, topics inane. A case in point is its ET Auto pullout. It’s disgustingly boring with a layout thats extremely sad. They make CEOs drive cars and ask them to analyse it. Pray, are these guys car experts or business honchos? To make matters worse, they have guest editors for their newspapers. Now, how can these guests ever match up to the skills of a seasoned journo, no matter how good they are in their respective jobs. How can Sunil Mittal or a Ratan Tata ever be a good Editor? Journalism is a different ball game and its best if we leave that to hard core journos and not to guys who barely know how to write beyond a paragraph.
Yes, several years ago ET was considered a good read because of the scoops and its fairly okay reportage. But now, its lost its sheen. Newspapers like the Business Standard and the Hindu Businessline have better news spreads and better content. ET is a powerful newspaper like its sister publication, the Times of India. Both ET and TOI are today bordering on absurdity and inanity in their reportage. As for the TOI’s titillating snapshots the less said the better. It’s now time to tell your children, ’’Don’t you dare read the newspapers!’’.