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I watched the Prime Minister's 'breakfast meeting' with 'senior' editors today on TV ( echoes of the Agra Summit, and Musharraf infamous breakfast meeting with editors, ofcourse, crossed my mind...)
Ordinarily, put any Prime Minister in a one-to-one interview with a journalist, and 99 times out of 100 he would come out well, because the journalist would be overawed, and would feel obliged, and also because on any given day, a Prime Minister generally has more information than a journo. And, it is not too difficult to "negotiate", and get to know the questions beforehand, and be prepared beforehand. Even some one as argumentative as David Frost was putty in Nixon hands, if one sees the documentary "Frost/Nixon".
But when a Prime Minister takes on two dozen editors, and that too, on live TV, group dynamics take over: they have to demonstrate to each other, and to the world, how leonine each one is, and how "independent" they are, and so, they proceed to outdo each other in aggression. After all, they have nothing to lose: all the suppressed anger at the humiliation each one get from his or her proprietor can be safely channeled and let out, in a heroic amount of indignation and independence. The Prime Minister (atleast not this one) is not going to order raids on their paper or channel, or cut off advertising.
That's what happened today: the Prime Minister was interrogated, and came off apologetic, eager to please, defensive, in front of a group of journalists who skewered him. Apart from the format of the interaction, the second problem, which anybody who is familiar with TV knows, is what kind of TV persona the subject has. Since the PM is not Ronald Reagan, with quick repartees, or Obama, with his made-for-TV eloquence, or even combative, the PR set-up, headed by Information Adviser, Harish Khare, should not gone in the first place for a televised event of this kind at all, in the first place.
But then, Harish Khare has been a press journalist, and after today's performance, it is clear that a newspaper journalist has no business to be Information Adviser in today's TV age. If Prime Ministers before had HK Dua or Baru or Ashok Tandon, it was because TV had still not achieved the kind of prominence it does today.
If the whole idea was to project the message that the Prime Minister and the government are in control, and to tell the government's side of the story, it did not work: it seemed at times that all the editors out there had come off straight from the daily 3 pm BJP briefing to grill the Prime Minister.
Not even Doordarshan was on the PM's side, with its "senior" editor asking a question on, what else, corruption. Neelam Sharma is a TV presenter, with no reporting experience, and I wonder whose idea it was to send her to the "breakfast' meeting. A big number of anchors and presenters on DD News are still selected with zero journalism experience, with their looks being paramount, in the old-fashioned way, and boy, did it show....
All in all, a worthy successor to Musharraf's breakfast meeting.......
Ordinarily, put any Prime Minister in a one-to-one interview with a journalist, and 99 times out of 100 he would come out well, because the journalist would be overawed, and would feel obliged, and also because on any given day, a Prime Minister generally has more information than a journo. And, it is not too difficult to "negotiate", and get to know the questions beforehand, and be prepared beforehand. Even some one as argumentative as David Frost was putty in Nixon hands, if one sees the documentary "Frost/Nixon".
But when a Prime Minister takes on two dozen editors, and that too, on live TV, group dynamics take over: they have to demonstrate to each other, and to the world, how leonine each one is, and how "independent" they are, and so, they proceed to outdo each other in aggression. After all, they have nothing to lose: all the suppressed anger at the humiliation each one get from his or her proprietor can be safely channeled and let out, in a heroic amount of indignation and independence. The Prime Minister (atleast not this one) is not going to order raids on their paper or channel, or cut off advertising.
That's what happened today: the Prime Minister was interrogated, and came off apologetic, eager to please, defensive, in front of a group of journalists who skewered him. Apart from the format of the interaction, the second problem, which anybody who is familiar with TV knows, is what kind of TV persona the subject has. Since the PM is not Ronald Reagan, with quick repartees, or Obama, with his made-for-TV eloquence, or even combative, the PR set-up, headed by Information Adviser, Harish Khare, should not gone in the first place for a televised event of this kind at all, in the first place.
But then, Harish Khare has been a press journalist, and after today's performance, it is clear that a newspaper journalist has no business to be Information Adviser in today's TV age. If Prime Ministers before had HK Dua or Baru or Ashok Tandon, it was because TV had still not achieved the kind of prominence it does today.
If the whole idea was to project the message that the Prime Minister and the government are in control, and to tell the government's side of the story, it did not work: it seemed at times that all the editors out there had come off straight from the daily 3 pm BJP briefing to grill the Prime Minister.
Not even Doordarshan was on the PM's side, with its "senior" editor asking a question on, what else, corruption. Neelam Sharma is a TV presenter, with no reporting experience, and I wonder whose idea it was to send her to the "breakfast' meeting. A big number of anchors and presenters on DD News are still selected with zero journalism experience, with their looks being paramount, in the old-fashioned way, and boy, did it show....
All in all, a worthy successor to Musharraf's breakfast meeting.......
Missed this one...looks like did not miss anything!
ReplyDeleteIt seems that like a typical 'Babu'(sarkari) you too have grudges against lady TV anchors cum correspondents like Neelum Sharma. She is the senior most anchor cum correspondent DD News has.he is, no doubt the FACE of DD. More so she has a brilliant track record of journalism right from her early MCRC & IIMC days. And, why do you still hold that a person from public broadcaster should not ask a question on corruption ? When the news conference was organised by the PM himself to clear all doubts regd. corruption charges against him. You are Male Chauvinist Pig. You would never appreciate the changing scenario of journalism in India and you would only talk about the looks when a lady anchor is in question. Your comments are really disgusting.
ReplyDeleteI didn't watch the Presser but read about it in papers. Somebody wrote that someone asked PM who his favourite cricketer was! And I just assumed that it must be Doordarashan's people who asked that question to save PM from your 'bloodhounds'! Thank God nobody asked him which movie he thought would win OScars this time or whether he liked Lady Gaga's entry to Grammy awards!
ReplyDeleteRegarding Neelam Sharma: It was a meeting with editors and not reporters, right. So I don't see any harm in the choice of DD to send Neelam, though may be strictly speaking she may not be an editor. But I guess she does decide on the content of the current affairs programmes she anchors. And I do feel that she is not that bad compared to the many reporters of DD.
And I didn't understand this:
'A big number of anchors and presenters on DD News are still selected with zero journalism experience, with their looks being paramount, in the old-fashioned way, and boy, did it show....'
Was there any goof up? What did the 'good looking guys with zero journalism experience' do to cause that incomplete remark?
And Rajdeep Sardesai writes on his blog that no snacks were provided to the journos! May be break fast followed the meeting. So you cannot actually call it breakfast meeting!
I do not get the relevance of Neelam's shairy before asking a question to PM. As some body mentioned that her beautiful looks help her to get the prime importance in dyfunck DD.
ReplyDeletewhat's happned i do'nt know .
ReplyDelete