Sunday, October 30, 2005

unim'press'ive

Hey..

We live in a democratic world where the fourth estate enjoys unlimited freedom. In many cases, it is the press that decides key events of the state. And without the media we wouldnt be where we are today.

However, as with all the competition at every place, press is a very very cut-throat competitive world and it is essential for every mediaperson to pull the necessary stunt that grabs audience to his/her story. For a news is a static fact and it is only the time & presentation of the presenter that builds or collapses a network. And to win in this competiton, media resorts to every possible methodology, sometimes going overboard.I got agitated in the morning when I visited the Rediff India Abroad, a really wonderful NRI website that I alongwith millions of others visit regularly. The reason was that the headline blasted Delhi blasts toll is 59,200 injured. For a moment it appeared as if the death toll was actually 59,200. Unable to believe this, I clicked on the main story, where the headline still remained the same. Only then I looked at the cleverly placed comma between 59 and 200 - which was actually stating that the death toll was 59 and the injured numbered to 200. I breathed a sigh of relief that it was not what I had dreaded the numbers to be.

A few minutes later, Raman pinged me and said that he had also mistaken the headline the same way I had. I realized that it was not just me who made the mistake. Rediff could have rephrased the headline in many other ways so that it could have given the clear message. To start with, they could have had a semicolon instead of the comma !! I got super pissed and logged into Rediff and blasted the lousy headline on their comments section - for it was misleading and a stupid attempt to grab attention over a incident that was horrible and killed people. And for all the claim that the press/media makes about freedom of speech and writing, Rediff hasnt published my comment until now.

The press should stop making such lousy and manipulative attention grabbers over incidents that have caused pain and anguish. Rediff is not the isolated one on this of course - each and ever media center from Sun TV to Indian Express to all these American news networks do this dramatization of incidents to climb on their viewership ratings. They should stop making catchy headlines on sensitive incidents that have punctured the lives of hundreds of fellow human beings.

Rediff - unimpressive, unprofessional, bad taste and cheap-publicity.

Ciao..

13 comments:

Rags said...

Dude - I was shell shocked too after seeing the headlines.

Many Indians abroad would have skipped a heartbeat reading that misleading headline.

Doing a mistake is bad...not accepting the same is worst...

Rediff - You just lost a bunch of readers due to this..

Krish said...

Agree Shiva, I thought the same way too (does that mean they succeeded in what they set out to do?) Anyway, happy deepavali :-)

Ganesh said...

Shiva romba nitpicking pannareenga vudunga pavam (morons) hehe

Happy Deepavali

Arvind Srinivasan said...

The best one that i've read till date is

Maniratnam kolai (front page - potti kadai ad)

Maniratnam kolai - muyarchiyil irundhu thappinar (the actual newspaper)

Shameless sleaze mongerers !!!

eyeStreet times said...

When the press calls for "who will judge the judges"...I wondered who would check the unlimited freedom of speech and expression these guys enjoy or claim to enjoy.

To start, they should exercise some self restraint and judgement to set an example to other institutions from stepping over the limit or in this case - the edge.

Sunday Thoughts said...

Rediff is outrageous in making the headlines.
It is nice blog to blast these irresposible idiots.

Shiva said...

rags - very true.

thennavan - Happy Diwali to you too !!

Ganesh - :) Happy Deepavali Sir!

Shiva said...

Arvind - :))there are other funny things, but we need to censor them :)

eshwar - yep!
Tharani - so true. thanks..

Ganesh said...

apparam namma party ennaachu ?!

Anonymous said...

Siva,

You have to write about Newey switch to RedBull!! Man this is news!! Unfortunately I'm too busy (!!) to write about it!

Shiva said...

ganesh - seekiram vachhiduvom !!

ananda - Iam also shocked at this move !! RedBull is in full form.. but I still wonder what they can do with Coulthard.. Anyways, this move is bad for Kimi - so he will eye Ferrari in 2007 ?

Anonymous said...

Shiva,

It almost happened during Jaguar and Ron prevented it from happening. Now it has finally happened. Not sure of the implications. Rory Byrne is talking about retiring and going back to SA, for quite some time. Possibly, they might get Newey. But Newey is also talking about retiring (and designing yacht)!

So, I am not buying into the idea of Newey in Ferrari. But this might make Kimi move away! And I am of the opinion Kimi will retire much earlier than others (pbly, after winning may be 2 championships). So, he might want to move to some place where he sees the best chance. I am not sure whether McLaren can lure Alonso (unlikely, IMO). I am confused.

Pbly we should hv expected this given Newey's nature. I thought Ron would have done something at least to pack Newey off earlier (so that he can get much more money) rather than leaving him when his contract expires (so no money at all!). That's why I didn't expect Newey to depart. Same goes for Kimi at Jan, 2007! Kimi will walk away with McLaren getting 0 money (I mean, if he decides to move!).

Much depends how how teams fare next year. And what Michael has in his mind. Lets c how it goes.

Anonymous said...

Shiva,

Redbull + Coulthard...they wouldn't do much in terms of winning. Remember, Coulthard's weakness (90% of his weaknesses) come from his way of one lap qualifying. With next year's rules it might change!

Also, Coulthard is one of the BEST development drivers. He works phenomenally well with engineers during testing and on set up before race day. Given the way Mika handled things, without Coulthard, Mika woundn't have won anything! Mika is fearsomely faster...but absolutely abysmal in anything but race day activities!

Also, See how long it took for Newey to make a sound implementation (last three years - all failure...2005 - bang!). It doesn't happen in a year. And Coulthard is a fantastic driver to have in those formative years. He is intelligent in development of the car, not slower than many guys around and what more could you ask for?

Good enough - my rating (at least for the next 2 years).

- Anand.

P.S:
1. I wonder when you became sHiva from siva!
2. This is why I rate Michael and Fernando higher than any other drivers around. THEY CAN DELIVER IN **ALL** ASPECTS. Kimi is good enough. But the rest: Juan, Jenson, Rubens et al - no where close in some aspect inspite of being awesomely fast.