Tough Life of a News Junkie

When you see your dad follow a process to devour the newspaper everyday, starting with the top bold letter headlines and eye catching news in the morning, details in the afternoon and almost every written word by the evening... you develop a fascination for news.

News, is only second to travelling, if you are looking to change your outlook. 

The benefits of knowing about your society, town, city, country and the world are not even in question. The matter of concern is the changing face of the source. I don't have a newspaper a day for my fix. I have access to multiple news sites and many news channels to indulge in. Not to forget radio. 

But no one tells you the news as is. The need to run for hours and hold Readers/viewers/audience attention corrupts the medium. The news channels sensationalize the news. The 'Breaking News' becomes an essential job description for journalists. The paraphrasing of events to 'add description' reminds me of padding words in essays while in school, in lieu of researching and finding more content. I support a policy for News channels and New sites to accept an abbreviated telecast/webpage in respect of a quieter, event less day.

Another problem with trying to grab attention of the audience results is news falling off the headlines when the “news reporters” assume that their audience is “bored” of the news. The first Ebola patient makes headlines. The second Ebola patient comes down a little in priority and by the time it’s an epidemic, only change in scene or region, cause a reshuffle the priority of the news.

If you want to find today what happened to the girls kidnapped by Boko Haram. You will find no news today. Pretty much like Drone strikes in Pakistan, Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, Human right violations in North Korea, Israel-Palestine relations.

God save you if you are trying to listen to actions of a democrat Federal Government through a TV/Radio channels in a republican state.

It’s up to an individual to filter the news to understand the events and not the views, visions and ideology of channel/reporter. Also wear blinkers to the life-altering information like celebrity divorces, weight gain and baby names.

80-20 Rule Changed

The Pareto principle (also known as the 80-20 rule, the law of the vital few and the principle of factor sparsity) states that, for many events, 80% of the effects come from 20% of the causes.

This rule has changed. Now it is the 99.99 - 0.01 rule, probably called the Destructive Rule or the law of irrational few.

Examples
• A handful of people defaced the “Brand Bengal” in name of social justice. After the Tata’s many company’s pulled out of West Bengal giving a big setback to the state’s economy. These people got the political mileage but what about millions of unemployed youth.
• A handful of MNS member (or I should say hooligans) changed the face of the most cosmopolitan city of India, Mumbai. The nuisance element is so high that International brands write the store names in hindi and the big & mighty apologize in public, lest they may have to fight unreasonable people.
• The so call moral police whose issues range from New Year celebrations to discotheques to school uniforms while hunger, poverty and exploitation persists.
• Few want to be politicians are the ones who throw Taslima out of the country, who rage at Hussain’s paintings, who make Sania take a decision not to play tennis in India to hide from controversies.
• Some people who hurt Indian economy by jamming transport between Jaipur and Delhi to earn reservation for their community. And a handful of politician who erode the social fabric of India to exploit the reservation law to win elections.
• Some people who create a strom when a celebrity hunts a black buck, but don’t even comment as many lions and tigers are hunted at times for profit and at times because of ignorance.


• The coward terrorists… who hide and kill innocent people to get their whimsical demands noticed, who bind the whole world in mourning and pain.

Benazir Bhutto Assassinated!!

The terrible news brings two threads of thoughts to my mind…

One that this lady has seen in her life time what most people take many incarnations to even know. She was born the daughter of President of Pakistan, Zulfiqar ali Bhutto…but she was only in her twenties when coup against her father was done by Zia ul Haq. She was jailed and her father killed. She had mentioned the pain of knowing the inevitable end of her father and expecting the bad news at any point of time, in her jail cell. She was allowed to leave the country after her father was hanged.

She came back after several years and won election in huge majority. These were the elections where she was supposed to face Zia ul Haq who however died shortly before facing the elections, in a plane crash.

As ruler of Pakistan though she was recognized as the pioneer of democracy, she and her businessman husband were accused of ramped corruption. She lost elections to Nawaz Sharif and her husband was also put to jail on corruption charges

After Parwez Musharaf seized power, he offered a safe passage to her and Nawaz Sharif and their respective families to leave Pakistan. She left Pakistan again.

She moved to London, but her efforts to come back to Pakistan and establish democracy never ceased. She was accused to have got in a Deal with President Parwez Musharaf which facilitated her comeback to Pakistan.

Greeted with a bomb blast on arrival to Pakistan at Karachi in October,2007, she continued to talk about elections. Though her approach towards Musharaf changed everyday, her pursuit for democracy only ended with her life.

Second thought … We should stop cribbing about Indian Politics. We still have democracy.