Ranjona Banerji: Why is war like a children’s game for our news channels?

By Ranjona Banerji

The news website Quint, started by entrepreneur Raghav Behl who also once owned Network 18, put out a story on Thursday that Indian Special Forces crossed the Pakistan border and killed 20 terrorists to avenge the Uri attack. This is a story right up our wear-on-your-sleeves patriotism currently on trend. Times Now apparently (this is hearsay evidence, I did not watch our Chief Patriot on Fire) was also gung-ho about this operation, though why it did not break this “exclusive” story, I cannot say.

The rest of the media and this includes our other patriotic news channels rubbished Quint’s story. Whether that is because the story is bogus or whether the rest were jealous, I cannot say either.

But I can say that what is a very serious problem between two neighbouring states (one of which has consistently attacked India in a number of ways) has turned into a Who’s The Better Patriot battle between competing TV news channels. It’s almost like a children’s game, apart from being so bizarre and bereft of responsibility.

NewsX continues to scream and shout about leftists not being up to its anchors’ ideas of ‘patriotism” and India Today TV made much of a “top secret” meeting chaired by the prime minister. Although the fact of the meeting should not be unusual because one would expect several such meetings after the Uri attack; significantly our patriots do not know what happened at the meeting so close but no cigar.

If there ever was a divide between print and TV journalism, it is most evident now. Matters of war and international relations are serious. The complete lack of depth in our public discourse since TV is the dominant media is now proving to be dangerous. This is not the usual complaint of glamour and frivolity getting more attention than “serious” news. It is far worse. This is “serious” news being treated like it was a Hollywood or Bollywood action blockbuster.

As for the Quint story about the “revenge” for Uri, it is most intriguing. If we work on the principle that journalists must carry any story they get (bypassing the New York Times’s famous motto of “All the news that’s fit to print”), then Quint had to carry its “exclusive”. But a little further thought takes you into the mindset of whoever leaked the information to Quint. Usually most countries keep their covert operations, well, covert, for self-evident reasons. So why was this operation revealed? To buy a little street cred with war-hungry patriotic votebanks? Or was it just a story sold to a credulous reporter? Despite the backlash, Quint has stuck to its story, so perhaps its sources want to ensure that this idea is out there even if it threatens future covert ops by India.

I sincerely urge my fellow journalists to watch the Barry Levinson film, Wag the Dog. A little cynicism is necessary if you want to be a journalist. I phrase it like that because I feel there is some hope yet for my compatriots in the world of television news.

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There’s war, there’s Syria, there’s racial tension, there’s the fight between Donald Trump and the sentient world and then there’s “Brangelina”. First, cynically, one has to give thanks that this awful portmanteau word will no longer be heard. Second, how important is it to anybody that Hollywood actors Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie are about to divorce? Actually, extremely important if you consider the amount of space and time this split has been given in the media. There was plenty excitement when Pitt left Friends’ star Jennifer Aniston for Jolie. But that was over a decade ago and basically, what is so surprising about Hollywood stars not being married to each other any more?

Was it one of the Gabor sisters who said she was a housekeeper because every time she got divorced, she kept the house?