The nature of my work(and the time schedules that I am required to follow as a result) leaves me with little time for good old-fashioned newspaper reading. Nor do I get much time to catch the news on television - which is, perhaps, a good thing since television news has rapidly degenerated into "sound and fury signifying nothing"(with apologies to Shakespeare) - with the notable and honourable exception of NDTV.
I am online for long hours at a stretch and so, naturally, that is where I read my news. And for Indian news, my chosen website is NDTV.com.(For international news, I follow the website of The Guardian, UK and, sometimes, The New York Times for stories specific to the US).
I have a strong distaste for sensationalism - I also hate biased reporting, gossip and one-sided stories. That is why I simply couldn’t stand the online version of The Times of India. For a while, I tried the website of that old plodder: Hindustan Times. It was terrible - with no concept of usability and interactivity.
My liking for NDTV 24X7(and my undying respect for Dr Prannoy Roy) led me to try NDTV.com
In terms of reliability and credibility, it exudes all the values that are innate to its television counterpart. In terms of design, layout, usability and navigation, it is truly a world-class site. or at least, close enough. And the frequency of updates is high - just the way it should be for an online news website.
There is, however, one problem that I have been noticing over the past three years or so. The "Comments" section has degenerated into a abyss of nasty aggressive right wing bitching. And the strange thing is that the "Comments" section is a moderated one!
You may think this started during the last elections when right wing trolls were all over the Internet, spewing venom, abusing liberal readers and vitiating the overall editorial atmosphere. Not really; yes, it intensified during the pre-election dirty-linen-washing but it had actually started long before that.
I personally wish NDTV.com would provide a functionality for "Turn Off Comments", especially since they do just that - turn you off!