Watching news and current affairs programmes on TV isn?t something most people would die for (probably unless you are a Martian or something) Besides news is boring and repetitive. (a 9/11 does not happen every week-thank god!-and we have become too blasé to terrorist attacks in Kashmir and railway accidents anyways)but having good news channels is of immense importance.
There are a lot of news channels on TV but the one that easily stands out is NDTV 24x7, not the least because it is the only English news channel worth watching. CNBC is for Swaminathan-Iyer type hardcore businessman (though a few shows like storyboard and trendmill are really interesting).BBC and CNN are too world-ish (besides my cablewallah ?buddhiraja does not feel these channels are too important so he doesn?t send us their signals) and?well?news and Headlines Today just don?t go together.
So we are left with NDTV and there is no doubt about it-it is pretty good. The channel headed by Prannoy Roy has its humble (ahem) beginnings in the ?The world this week? show hosted by Prannoy Roy on DD long ago. later it teamed up with star for the star news channel and finally broke off last year to start their own channels NDTV India, a Hindi channel with former aaj tak anchors, basically meant to bring in the moolah and NDTV 24x7 their main English channel. When they first started the new channel my buddhi-less cable wallah apparently felt that it was useless and so didn?t show it us until he was bombarded with a hundred calls by my sis and her friends. But the struggle was worth it if only to watch their superb anchors.
As anyone would tell you NDTV has the best people in the world of Indian journalism. There?s Rajdeep Sardesai, their managing director and political editor (a personal favorite). He has got something awesome. But he tends to be a bit rude and overtly aggressive sometimes. (Watch him in the big fight-he practically shouts) Then there is Barkha Dutt , an award winning journalist and another personal favorite. She was greatly appreciated for her coverage of the Kargil war (which I completely missed-did not have a cable connection and?well?how much interest can a 9 year old self obsessed unpatriotic girl show in a bloody war?) Note: Romilla Dutta of Lakshya is nothing like the Barkha Dutt.All the hype was bakwas I?m sure people won?t praise her for going to a war and looking good?and?giving lectures on peace.
Vikram Chandra, who was also a star reporter during the Kargil war and Arnab Goswami are also superb.Sreenivasan Jain is their Mumbai head , though he is rarely seen on the channel these days.Nidhi Razdan is a bright upcoming anchor.Sonali Chander(sports) and Amitabh Revi are pretty good too. Earlier Prannoy Roy used to host a news bulletin too but now thankfully he has given up and restricted himself to budget and election coverage (which is the best non-violent way to bore yourself to death)
The shows to watch out for
For a boring news channel NDTV 24x7 seems to have a lot of good shows. The best is?I think?We the People. Hosted by barkha dutt It airs every Sunday at 8 pm . it is basically a discussion show in which a group of panelists sits with the audience and discusses a new topic every week.Barkha Dutt is firm but sweet and actually lets the audience speak(unlike Sardesai)
Then there is The Big Fight hosted by Rajdeep Sardesai (saturady-8 pm) A debate show with three (or more) panelists. The ones with politicians are really interesting. On Saturdays there is also an interview show by Shekhar Gupta ?walk the talk at 7:30. It is a good show except that I feel that it would be much better if they could change the anchor.
Shekhar Gupta certainly is not someone who speaks very fluently. They also have an interactive viewer?s choice kinda show-we?ve got mail in which people write in to demand their favorite shows. One of the most original shows is 24 hours in which they show 24 hours of a person?s life( Bombay?s tiffinwallas. A call centre employee etc) the 10pm news is hosted by rajdeep sardesai and barkha dutt alternatively.(except on Sundays)Besides the channel keeps adding new shows regularly.They also have this cartoon type show for 5 mins intervals-double take which is a spoof on politicians with animated anchors and guests.It really makes you laugh out loud sometimes.
NDTV boasts of always abiding by the truth as any news channel would.And incredibly their credibility is pretty high.(barring one interview of Pervez Musharraf where they went horribly wrong)It is also very unbiased in its reporting.Their coverage of the Kargil war and the Gujarat riots was superb.They have the best (though boring) election coverage in the country.They also covered the US invasions of Iraq and Afghanistan pretty well.Though in terms of the speed of news aaj tak is far ahead.Their 6388 services are also useful.The ’comments’ thing gives the shows a kind of personal touch.
My major problem with NDTV is with the person who does the voiceover for their promos. Promos usually have people with really sweet voices doing the speaking-bit but NDTV has such a bad speaker?with a husky intolerable voice..He spoils the entire thing. Then the orange colour that NDTV uses is also very irritating.Orange is just a bit tooo bright and I guess they probably know it too ?coz they have started using blue for some of their shows. But the sooner they change the better it is going to be. (Cheers! headlines today has better, calmer blue sets though with their fake firang accent speakers that?s probably all they are going to have)Also their sets have too much lighting sometimes?extremely bright yellow sets.
When NDTV was with Star, they used to have this really cool show at 10 pm on weekdays-newshour (or maybe it was newsnight) It was a one hour long show usually hosted by two anchors. It was really nice and I do hope they start it again.
Overall I think it is the best news channel on TV. So if you want to catch some news catch it on the channel. You will get to hear the `Truth. Experience first.?