Telugu News Channels and their silly commentary

I have been observing this from sometime and what I saw and heard just now on TV9 made me write this post.

There appears to be a dearth for quality news despite their continuous sting operations and crime stories. Let me come to the news item that acted as the tipping point for this post.

Newsreader "Today people found a python in a residential area. People who sighted the python claimed that it must have come from the nearby hills. People shivered with fear and it was a tense situation. Let's have a look at what happened."

Video: There is a big python motionless (initially I feared that people killed it but thank god they were sensible) and people are poking it at all places but it is lying still and moving its head once in a while. People are having fun and discussing who saw it first and how he called others to come have a look at it.

Now the question is - where were the people who are supposed to be shivering with fear, may be mistakenly they said people and it was the snake that was shivering with fear. The whole was so silly but the news reader presented it as if it was a bomb threat.

TV9 in particularly believes so much in sensationalism. I remember when the Punjagutta flyover accident happened, they were the first to announce (other channels are no less) that more than 20 people died and at the end there were only two casualties. These news channels, particularly the local ones are believing in hype and loud noise.

Each of these channels have launched a helpline to report corruption and use clippings from popular movies to convey this message. It appears that corruption is the only reason we are facing all the problems and if we can eliminate corruption all problems can be eradicated. I hope they do some learning and try and see the big picture and broader issues and act as a catalyst for change instead trying to make noise all the time.

While the "Live" part has been highly beneficial, overkill can take away all the viewer interest.

TV9, Etv2, TV5 and whoever else, are you guys listening? While I am writing this post, I catch another story on CNN-IBN about the Citizen Journalist. I think the telugu media can learn a lot from this initiative.