By Ranjona Banerji
The coverage of the US presidential election would really annoy our Indian patriotic news anchors. Most major media houses do not appear to be in favour of Republican Party “nominee†Donald Trump. Although there are allegations that Trump got $3 billion worth of free publicity from the US media, few are saying nice things about him. There is some truth in the dictum that even negative publicity is good, it does not really seem to be helping Trump, opinion polls-wise.
On a discussion on CNN after the last debate on October 19, commentators were not kind to Trump and his two supporters on the panel had a tough time defending him. If our patriot news anchors had been there, the anti-Trump commentators would have been dismissed as “anti-national†within seconds and their mikes switched off. Alas, these international news channels which are broadcast to India just do not behave like that. They have a lot to learn from our patriots especially since some of the commentators had heard of the US Constitution and precedence and democratic norms as followed in America. All novel concepts for some our patriotic news anchors.
And in spite of my kind words, here are some excoriating comments on CNN’s style from the Columbia Journalism Review. The sort of hard-hitting critiques we need more of in India:
http://www.cjr.org/covering_the_election/cnn_trump_analyst_lord_lewandowski_mcenany.php
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In India meanwhile although our patriotic news anchors might also want to join “Hindus for Donald Trump†or whatever that organisation is called, they are stuck with matters Indian like Karan Johar’s new film which stars, gasp!, a Pakistani actor. Thanks to the Maharashtra Navnirman Sena and all the free publicity it gets (anyone calculated that?), we have our patriotic knickers in a twist. Obviously none of our patriotic news anchors have given us the official position on this subject because that would mean, well, questioning the government and, even worse, actual work. We do know that the Union Home Ministry will allow the film to be released.
And also, in some strange turn which led to an understanding of news, a terrible fire in a hospital in Bhubaneshwar, where 21 people died has received wide television coverage. The conspiracy theorists might point out that Bhubaneshwar is the capital of Odisha which is not a BJP-ruled state but let us not be so unfair. The fire was horrific as was the attitude of the hospital authorities, showcasing that particular brand of murderous callousness that is so common in India. Therefore, we are grateful to Times Now and Shri Arnab Goswamiji for focusing on this.
Makes a change from yelling generals, if you want to cynical about Times Now’s news sense which I often want to be.
Looking for more Trump news this morning, I found a small news report on NDTV about some massive bank fraud in India, where some 32 lakh or 3.2 million debit cards have been compromised. There was an interview with a defrauded person in Hyderabad and a scroll which had the Union Finance Minister being quoted as saying there was no need to worry. That is because we are nation of over one billion people so 3.2 million cards is nothing. Or, that this is a story that has to be pursued further as soon as everyone wakes up. I’m hoping that the second sentence comes true.