Outrageous and Irresponsible Media Coverage

What passes as Media debate on many TV channels is nothing but a farce, a tamasha. Participants shout and hurl insults at each other and the anchors goad them on, since such media circus apparently boosts TRPs. Many anchors behave like all-knowing experts and ram their own opinions and agenda. They seem to be a law unto themselves, smug in the mistaken belief that they can make or break reputations.

Outrageous coverage of the Pathankot attack has again highlighted that media has learnt nothing from its ineptness during the 26/11 terror strike.  A case in point is Arnab Goswami of Times Now, unarguably the most infuriating among anchors, whose boastful rants and verbal diarrhea are insufferable. Day after day he sought to badger Pakistani experts on his program to admit that the terrorists were from Pakistan. What for? If Musharraf and the Pakistani Govt could brazenly deny Osama bin Laden’s presence, did Arnab believe his verbal volleys will spook them into admitting the same? Instead, his cocky taunts provoked the Pakistanis to repeatedly ridicule our tardy response on ground, and the loss of seven precious lives in neutralizing the terrorists.  

Why should anchors such as Arnab Goswami provide a platform to Pakistanis to pour scorn on our Armed Forces? How demoralizing and painful it is for the Forces to be spoken of so humiliatingly by Pakistanis on Indian TV, much to the glee of their compatriots back home!  The valiant soldiers, who paid with their lives and limb for the bungling by the HM-NSA duo, and the Indian Armed Forces as a whole, were undeservedly exposed to ridicule by the stupidity of such conceited anchors.

It is high time that TV news channels are directed to rein in their errant anchors and news reporters. Many of them behave like armchair specialists, rather than just reporting. Often reporters interfere with the ongoing operation or the subsequent search and rescue, by aggressively pestering the personnel with their pesky questions. As everywhere else in the world, reporters should be strictly kept at a distance along with the general public. They must not be allowed to come in the way, or contaminate the spots where forensic evidence is yet to be gathered.