End of a New(s) Era!

As a newly minted teenager finding and forming his own voice and even political opinion, I discovered the programme, The World This Week, on DD (well, there was no other channel on TV back then). 

Prannoy Roy mesmerised me with the Friday feature providing short but insightful updates about what’s happening across the world beyond our own. It also immensely helped me broaden my horizons about foreign affairs, spurred me to read voraciously, and even dream of pursuing studies in International Relations and choose Foreign Service as my first option while appearing for the Civil Services. It is another matter that I neither did masters in International Relations nor made it to the Foreign Service. 

Prannoy went on to start his own news channel as the country freed media, and for a long time, NDTV was the most preferred news channel among English news watchers - particularly for the well-measured debates, and excellent electoral analysis. The channel over time got mired in multiple controversies (Radia tapes, forex issues), lost many of its leading news anchors, and as the people’s political leaning veered an entire spectrum, lost most of its audience too. 

Most of the successful TV anchors we have today, have come from the stables of NDTV - Arnab Goswami included. However, what set the anchors of NDTV and other channels apart was the calm demeanour they conducted themselves and the debates with. Be it Left, Right, Centre, or the Big Fight, or We the People, the shows cast the right kind of spotlight on extremely topical issues, and invited some of the best orators and debaters to the shows. Vikram Chandra, Sagarika Ghose, Srinivasan Jain, each of them brought gravitas to their shows. Even the studio audiences that participated in the shows asked some piercing and disconcerting questions to the speakers, or lit up some amazing debates and slugfests, all without anyone losing a shirt. 

I remember watching some of the best talk shows with Barkha engaging on topics from the likes of corruption in the bureaucracy and military to the issues on sexual orientation. There were debates on everything you loved and even if they didn’t reach the conclusive you believed in, they never disappointed you for lack of quality. 

One could never imagine or hear the decibels of an Arnab or a Sudhir or a Navika on NDTV. The anchors would let everyone talk, and also coolly shut down someone who was either vituperative or voluble. Nor were they unnecessarily obsequious or abrasive with their guests.  They maintained exemplary decorum.  

The news of Adani acquiring stakes in the channel that was beleaguered with investigations and court battles on multiple prongs had come out of the blue some time back.  And, today, the takeover is complete.  As Prannoy Roy calls it a day at the channel he started over three decades ago, it’s time for nostalgia. Regardless of accusations - true or false, loss of viewership, the channel stayed true to its basics. The reporting was tempered and not temperamental, the debates were measured, and not slanging and shouting fests, the opinion pieces (on its app), searing and insightful.  In the last few years though the channel has been derided by the supporters of Right Wing with the choicest abuses, and called every unsavoury name.  Yet, the channel didn't change its editorial stance.  The channel even won battles against multiple government agencies in the court. Just when it was thought that the worst was over for the Roys, the takeover hit them out of the blue.  

Two most important contributions of NDTV that many might have forgotten (or given new colours to them now) are pursuing the Jessica Murder case and keeping it alive, ensuring justice finally being delivered, and the coverage of Kargil conflict, that brought home the true difficulties of our army men to everyone’s home. 

Ravish kumar, the Magsasay winning star of Hindi channel of NDTV stables has already announced his resignation. Unfortunately I haven’t watched him much, even though is the darling of the liberals (as I cannot follow Hindi much). I do not know if others - Srinivasan Jain et al - would follow suit. 

News as we knew has completely changed. It is replaced by propaganda everywhere. And as NDTV falls, one can possibly say, ‘the News is Dead. Long Live Propaganda’.