At a time when the issue should be larger than the subject questioning it, TV9 does the most ignoble of things. By projecting reporters larger than life. Just the other day, I saw a live voice broadcast of a reporter, giving his take on the dismal state of Karnataka politics, as if he’s an expert on the subject. Even that is okay by me. But what is not, is the way his photograph filled up almost half the screen, while the rest carried file footage of the Karnataka drama that unfolded in the last two months. A decade ago, this practice was frowned upon. In fact, there were no pictures of the correspondents covering the news. Only many years later, did the TV channels decide to put a face to the voice at the other end. Then again, it was a passport size photo. Still, the story was bigger than the reporter. Fair enough.
But once globalisation set in and cable TV became ‘the’ addiction of the nation, mere reporters became voices of India, be it on NDTV, Aaj Tak or Star News. Their ignorance was only matched by their arrogance in needling a controversial topic and upbraiding a supposedly errant person. That’s when they became larger-than-life. There have been many instances where these reporters have ridden roughshod over the cameramen who are herded around like cattle. There have been many more instances where the TV reporter becomes an arm-chair journalist and gets his story on the phone, leaving the cameraman to cover his tracks by getting the video footage of the scene in question. You could shout ‘manpower crunch’ and get away with it, but not when it’s a crucial story of national and international importance. But this has happened ad infinitum. No TV channel wants to send out its team of reporters and cameramen to remote corners of the state and country. Take TV9. Much of its reporters are confined to the major districts of the state. What about the towns? Aren’t they not part of Karnataka? Can the state be called one without them? Are they a Karnataka-centric channel or a district-centric channel? Agreed, much of the news happens in districts like Bangalore and Mysore, but that shouldn’t deprive the other town folks from airing their news and views?
Not that TV9 is the only culprit. All the national channels are party to it. The anchors are portrayed as larger than life and even have advertising campaigns endorsing that fact. I would prefer an expert instead of these just-out-of-a-beauty parlour anchors any day. And then, there’s this issue of tapping every nook and cranny of the state and country. With the politics of opportunism reaching a new low in Karnataka, every newspaper, magazine and TV channel, both local and national, should have carried out campaigns on the pros and cons of a coalition government. Is it the antidote to autocracy or does it lead to the collapse of democracy? While the jury is still out on that, it’s about time we asked this question to ourselves and be ready with our vote for the upcoming state and general elections.
May the best win.
(This piece has appeared in my Media Watch column that runs in Agni every week)