Channel Surf

5 partially moving blobs and stripes are giving me extra info apart from news to watch and listen to. Switch.

WrittenBy:Sunayana Singh
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Times Now’s obsession for the day is Dinesh Trivedi. Good for Dinesh Trivedi for putting country before party, putting safety before populist measures, and standing his ground on the rail budget. Or perhaps ganging up with the Congress to teach Mamta a lesson, according to Vinod Mehta. Or ganging up with Mamata to teach the Congress a lesson. Whatever. After being hounded by the press all the way from his office to his car, (a considerable distance) when he finally calmly said – ‘Why are you creating this confusion? Aap aisa confusion create karoge to I won’t talk to you’, the bands under the visual in bold letters said, “MINISTER VENTS HIS FRUSTRATION ON MEDIA” Huh! “EMBARASSED, RAIL MINISTER HITS OUT” What? Where? He would be justified if he did give them a metaphoric whack, but he did not! He was quite calm. And you have to read this band whilst reading a total of three bands at the bottom and one at the top. So pay attention.

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Yawn. They keep repeating the same footage again and again. Dude it’s prime time. How about some other news or recap? None forthcoming. And now the band at the bottom says BREAKING NEWS: TMC TO PROTEST IN PARLIAMENT? Isn’t it weird that the breaking news is a question? You’re breaking a question? WTF? The answer – now that would be breaking news… but alas. There’s just too much going on this screen and I’m getting confused.

Switch

Headlines Today. An interesting story – “Onus of rape on woman in Gurgaon.” Good story on Gurgaon police’s decision to impose a “no women should work after 8” law. Must’ve hit upon this brainwave while munching on After 8’s. (The police has issued a clarification that there is no such law. They have asked offices to enforce an old rule of ensuring safe drop offs for women after 8, or you can’t make them work after 8 which is kind of the same as banning them after 8 but whatever). Yeah that’s right, curb the freedom of women instead of cracking down on rapists. Oops I’m digressing! A discussion followed with Maxwell Periera, Neelam Katara, Advaita Kala, and a BJP politician.

Maxwell brings out an interesting question – “Is it an advisory or a law coz a law has to be implemented. Till then it’s not a law.” (Read: So there’s no real need to get excited).

Anchor Gaurav says “It is a rule, it’s more than an advisory sir!” (Read: Gaurav panicking that his main issue is shortly in danger of becoming a non-issue because this is just an advisory and may or may not really become a law).

Maxwell shakes his head and tries to explain but anchor Gaurav gets very excited and reiterates that it’s more than an advisory.

At least find out exactly what it is before you do a story and a panel discussion. Very clearly he did not know, but neither did Maxwell so we went back to the main topic – police bashing (a very well deserved one in my opinion.) Then comes Advaita Kala, who doesn’t beg to differ, but wants to point out something no one is really interested in.

Advaita Kala – “…I don’t condone what the police is doing, but just because I’m not going gaga over the police saying that, doesn’t mean that you can overlook the fine print in the press release which also says that employers have to provide security to women in their organization…” – which she says is a good point and it’s an area in which Indian companies are sorely lacking, along with sexual harassment laws. Sorry Advaita, in this day and age, you pick one point and harp on it. You don’t look at the fine print. Ta ta.

Overall a good issue to take up, and a decently short and sweet discussion. Much better than the three stripes of breaking news I just left behind. Ah finally one appears at the bottom. Dinesh Trivedi strikes again.

Sigh..still it was a nice break and a good discussion.

Switch.

Let me check out CNN-IBN for the possibility of a more sober newscast and nicer screen space. But what was I thinking! If you can believe it, there are even more bands on this channel, and to make things worse two of them are moving.  5 blobs that are giving me extra info apart from the news that I have to watch and listen to at the same time. But at last there’s some quick recap of all kinds of news from all over India. Something missing from other channels at this moment.

Oh wow! A wrestling match between MLA’s in the Orissa assembly.  (And you were upset about porn watching!) Aamir is 47! (That’s news? Did they expect him to grow younger?) The Talwar dad has got bail (Can someone please confess to this crime and spare us). That’s about all I got till motion sickness forced my fingers to go back to my favourite anchor of all time, whom I know would have appeared by now!

Switch.

Arnab. He has finally got Dinesh Trivedi “exclusively”. 100 bucks says Trivedi will be on at least one other channel at the same time “live and exclusive”. I like Arnab. He just doesn’t let anyone get away with anything. He finally pinned down Trivedi and asked him if he’ll rollback the price hike, and finally

Trivedi says: my country first.

Arnab: ‘What about the party?’

Trivedi: My country comes first.

Jai Hind! Good for you. Finally one minister is doing something for the safety of the railways. Let aunty stew in it.

Switch

Back to Headlines, and Rahul Kanwal is announcing an exclusive with Dinesh Trivedi! Told ya! Today is Dinesh Trivedi’s day. Surely his gaadi will stop at every station.

P.S. – Late night edition of 95.5 Red FM announces a solution to the raging debate over the Gurgaon police advisory. – “After 8 o’clock all men should stay at home!” More power to you!

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