Monday, May 15, 2006

A murderer left in the dark

Pramod Mahajan died on May 3, 2006.

The media was at its "brilliant best", working round-the-clock to give the suave leader the most deserving tribute. It was a sensational story for the TV channels -- a story about a leader who was shot by his own blood for not giving "enough attention" to his family .

After the death, the media, conveniently forgot about the villian in this gruesome murder.

Even while the news channels were choc-o-block with images of the BJP leader, glorifying his policital career, there were no reports on the killer. Barring one newspaper report, all other media houses ignored Pravin Mahajan.

I don't condone Pravin Mahajan's actions but the media had a duty to present his story as well. In a sensational incident like this one, media shouldn't have taken sides.

Instead of churning numerous visuals of the "situation outside the hospital", doctors mumbling out the death report or party members chanting adoration, they should have done a story on how Pravin reacted to the news of his brother's death or whether Pravin's family attended the funeral.

In a time, where journalists run haywire for "breaking news", we should introspect on the news-worthiness of these reports and not doze off. The media, who are accused innumerable times for short-term memory, should take an initiative to track a story till its very end. And not let the public draw conclusions on their own.

It's high time the media pulled up its socks!

3 Comments:

Anonymous Anonymous said...

What do you mean by saying that the story of pravin should be highlighted too? Died was pramod and not pravin, the killer was pravin and the victim pramod.
It is easy to say cover both angles. And for your info most of the papers did cover it.
glorification of the gory at is what you want the media to do?
Parmod had just decided to ignore his brother. and death for that is too much

5:31 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

After reading your blogs i get this feeling that you HATE the media. Thats kinda weird because you work in a newspaper yourself....(Pssst...TOI not paying you well?)

12:16 AM  
Blogger Sneha May Francis said...

I don't HATE the media. I am only pointing out some points which need to be finetuned. And I love my profession, but that does not mean that I am blinded to its flaws.

5:12 PM  

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