Looks like I’m in the company of Star News fans :)
A long time ago there was ’The World this Week’ where Parannoy
Roy reported and hooked us all. Then came the satellite TV
glut and Roy got his 24 hour dream! Star News was an awesome
change from the state run DD news bulletins - and the anchor
persons surely smarter than the ones on DD.
Soon everyone was watching Star News. Parannoy expanded and
a whole bunch of new faces appeared. And with them came
Rajdeep Sardesai!
Star News does have a wide variety of programmes. But the
main issue is Sardesai and the others who’re adopting his
style of news-reading - if you can call it that. Its not
news anymore - not just reporting facts and insights into
them - but forming public opinions - fairness be damned. Its
about the media deciding things and passing judgement. They
do not let their guests have a last say. They try digging out
a controversy out of the most uncontroversial issues and
very often put words in their guests’ mouths - which is
very very unfair. Rajdeep goes to the extent of quoting his
guests out of context immediately after they’ve spoken by
interjecting (rather rudely) with ’’so you’re saying....’’
and putting a completely different spin on the words.
If a guy’s done good work - its ’so the govt is not helping
you with this’ even if that was the last thing on the
person’s agenda and he had no cribs before Star News caused
the seeds of one.
News persons should never pass judgement. Rajdeep and his
gang should not try and become representatives of a country
but should merely report what they see and the background
for the stories. Responsible stories can happen if you do
not get your personal biases into them.
Barkha Dutt is one bright spot in the team. Srinivasan too.
Unfortunately, the rest of the team are Sardesai clones -
almost.
Parannoy Roy should look beyond the ratings now.