The rush to go on air the way it happened in the Bandra station fiasco, shows that television channels are also guilty of rushing in where truth would fear to tread
The breathlessness surrounding breaking news on television often also makes the viewer hyperventilate. This was evident on Tuesday when around thousand migrant workers in Mumbai flocked to Bandra railway station to board special trains back home. The news had been flashed on a television channel and the daily wage earners, lockdown in Mumbai, responded with alacrity.
The Marathi news channel, responsible for this has been drawing considerable flak for carrying news which had a potential to create confusion and chaos. The channel has ducked responsibility clarifying that the news was based on a note from south central railway, which said ‘a move to start special trains to carry labourers was being considered’. The desperate labourers, passing their days in uncertainty, had no way of checking the veracity of the report. In their anxiety to not miss the opportunity, they broke the lockdown and rushed out.
The bane of electronic media has always been the rush to break a story before the competitor gets a whiff of it. The cost of doing so is rarely considered. For those of us who have spent their entire careers in print medium, such speed would be unthinkable.
A newspaper has to perforce act with responsibility as there is no going back on the printed word.
In today’s environment where people are relying more on television and avoiding the print mediums, this fact needs to be reiterated. A newspaper has to perforce act with responsibility as there is no going back on the printed word. Each line of a news story is thoroughly whetted and passes from under many eyes. It is also for this reason that a newspaper report is believed more, carries weight and stands the test of time.
For television channels, which are updating constantly, there is no time for such niceties or compulsions. What is important is to stay ahead of others. In the difficult times that we are living in, this could be and has proved to be dangerous. Every time a news is repeated something is added or taken away from it. When a person hears of a news pertinent to himself the first instinct is to read and then believe. But news that breaks on television is always verbally repeated. Those giving a narration also take the liberty of adding or taking away from the real story. The narrator always embraces an air of importance while repeating what s/he heard. It is then passed on and each time something is added or removed from it- very much like Chinese Whispers.
The lockdown being so painstakingly practiced nearly imploded
Television is a medium for instant dissemination of news and thus its responsibility of ensuring that only the right word goes out, is that much more. On this particular occasion the mistake was cruel. The lockdown being so painstakingly practiced nearly imploded, the state government had a law and order situation on hand. But the worst affected was the poor labour. His hopes of reaching home, lighted, flickered for a moment and died out. But not before he had received a thrashing from the cops and had to suffer the ignominy of being pushed back to the shelters.
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