That the Indian Express newspaper needs to report that Jessica Simpson "farted" at a meeting with executives seems so perverse and warped. And this is the great "world news" we receive when there are thousands of issues of genuine value which could use the space to bring real matters of concern to our attention. If Shekar Gupta is listening then I hope he recognises that this is not the standard of journalism that we expect under his leadership.
On the same day I read in the Times of India that Schumacher dyes his hair! So, as if I care!!! What idiotic stories fill up space these days. And then if you ever ask these publications why they print such drivel , their answer is that the viewers want to read it. Well I am "a reader" too so whose opinions do these publications poll? More than three idiots I think!
And then comes the issue of serious topics. Here we are sold out by another type of stupidity! Reading about the lack of truth and accuracy that major exponents of global warming have offered us, that distort an issue that we already fight so hard to place at center stage in the consciousness of people, makes me really angry. So once again we loose the fight to sensitise thinking and create an awareness for environmental issues, because of the incompetence of those who are supposed to know better. Or is it just plain and simple megalomaniac and greed of power that prompts these spokespeople to postulate on issues they are not equipped to talk about, just to get a little extra media mileage for themselves. So what if creating alarmist tendencies that distract from the real issues occurs, because hey that's how India functions most of the time: hit and miss, isn't it?! Nobel actions after all is what the game of life is all about!
Now another Modi fingers the fragile relations between communities and countries. The IPL god man has turned his back on the Pakistani cricket players. And as good old Chidambaram "talks merely as a cricket lover" and cautions of such boycotts being adverse for the "good of the game", the man in a white suite only laughs louder all the way to the bank, dimpled actresses and reality show celebrities in tow for company!
Well some will say it takes all kinds to make a world, but for me the fewer of these "types" the better! Oh well, if wishes were horses then pigs could fly too!
Dear Rekha,
ReplyDeleteWhat you said is absolutely true. Newsmakers choose their viewers/readers, not the other way round, though we are made to believe that in the post-modern egalitarian world we have more freedom to choose than ever before.
Freedom to choose the news predictates the limits of the same freedom. Freedom of choice is a virtual expansion of the limits and the inclusion of a few more goods/channels.
Ultimately we don't choose. We are chosen. So, even if we dont want, Jessica Simpson's bodily functions become news. Look at the column space spent on Brangalina Family. (I remember someone commenting Brangalina's interest in adopting kids is nothing about love but all about collecting 'specimens' for a family zoo).
Locating the truth comes with the dilocation of the same. A story is told in hundred different ways. Bani Abidi's video work, how the same new caster in two different attairs (Of India and Pakistan)present the same news in different ways, exemplifies it in our commonly shared context of art.
One day, as a writer said, the country will disband its own people and choose a new people.
We are misfits. We will be disbanded. And our creative efforts are the resitances to this probable and possible dispersal.
jml