OF LOST LIVES..AND SOULS...
Tuesday was just another regular day for most of us..was'nt it? Or..was it really?? It was'nt. Not if there is any semblance of the humaneness that God blessed us with. Mumbai was ripped apart by explosions that brought the city to a screeching hault...hundreds caught unaware, hundreds who will never know what hit them...and why.
There has not been a fleeting moment that the news channels have not covered, or atleast attempted to. Due credit to them. Yes, they have kept us apprised of the appalling state of affairs there, but, there is something, something that stings me, and leaves me disconsolate and miserable. I'm talking about the countless inanimate bodies that are left behind everytime a catastaophe like this besieges us. Lifeless remains of what spouted vigour once, left, to the vultures to gorge on.
"God! Thats blasphemous!", you will argue...Yes, it is. But it is we who let it happen, and we who do it, perpetrate it. What else can you say about the mangled
remains of the victims that the news channels take such vicarious and sinful delight in broadcasting..time and again??
Don't these pictures leave you mutilated as well? Leave you with a mutilated conscience and a bleeding heart, your soul frayed?
'Live coverage!!'..is that what they keep harping? But, unfortunately, they are no longer covering the live.
Are not they, from whom life was so mercilessly plucked, deserving of even a moment of candid and unfeigned respect? They are, you will say..but do we give it to them?We don't. If we really did, would we be so unpenitently exhibiting them? Each channel trying to one up the other, scrambling to show the 'first pictures' ..'first pictures' ? ! They are infact, someones Last Pictures. If the media does it to increase viewership, then we must admit that it is a total disregard of human life, even when it has been extinguished. It is sacrilege and we, a party to it.
Have we ever witnessed anything of the sort when the international media comes into picture...the London attacks are still fresh in the mind...was there any footage showing the dead, any clipping saying these pictures demand viewer discretion, or that they might be disturbing ? I'm sure it was not for want of 'sufficiently gruesome' photographs which they needed to flaunt, or because their reporting left anything to be desired..it was, and plainly enough, because of veneration for the dead.
I hope this realisation dawns on us too, and soon, or we will never be able to live up to our own selves. Human life is priceless, but so is dignity, and let not death steal that from us.
posted by Nupur Bhatnagar @ Thursday, July 13, 2006
4 Comments:
Frankly the phenomenon you raised your finger at is just disgusting. It seems that there is hardly any quality journalism on television any more. I hope TV news editors realize that their new brand of reporting is infact turning away some viewers.
Let me quote an example. The word breaking news has very sinister connotations for me. The first time we saw these words on TV were during the gulf war, when i was living practically next door to the war. And the second time during the Saudi Airline disaster over New Delhi, which took the life of someone i knew. Watching those reports, the only thing i could think of was "That could have been me" nowadays the shenanigans of wannabe celebrities are breaking news... bah!!
Yes, indeed. It's sheer commercialism that is touching every part of our lives. One could well argue on the thin dividing line between commercial interests and human values. Why do most media companies, especially electronic media remain in existence and spend so much of money running such huge operations. Be it a national calamity or the removal of a 5 year old from a pit. It is for eye-balls.
For every 5 year old being removed from a pit there are lakhs dying. Does that mean we stop showing the 5 year old being removed from the pit?
What I said above is in no means defending media channels. However, what media channels need like most other un-controlled sectors is a common set of guidelines. Set by themselves for themselves. It's a growing sector; will happen in time.
Information will get easier to get. What will work is the pressure people like you who know what they want is not breaking news but knowledge. Natural selection on what we prefer to read will get media companies conduct in a better way for their survival(look at the ad industry today!). Sooner rather than later. :-).
p.s. your blogging skills are improving with every passing blog. :-)
Very good one Nupur... I completely agree... i hated it..really...
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