Sunday, August 16, 2009

Yellow Journalism at its Best

It is the 62nd year of our democratic Independent I N D I A. Like every Indian, I am proud of my nation and woke up to witness our beloved Prime Minister, DR.Manmohan Singh addressing the nation. In this world of Satellite television, people become confused when it comes to viewing, for people has so many channels to select.Anyway, as I continued to watch the program, a BREAKING NEWS flashed on the screen. What could be more breaking than the Independence Day of India? The news is Bollywood star, also known as King Khan had been detained and interrogated for two hours at the Newyark Airport,United States of America.It is believed as Mr.SRK told almost all the networks that he had been quizzed because of his name-Khan.

SRK is that rare individual, a mediocre performer who is also a great communicator, an actor who understood his acting acumen better than most, and a sharp thinker who, like a chess grandmaster, consistently thought half a dozen moves ahead. He is also fun-loving, a mimic, accessible, and wears the crown of greatness lightly.

I take this incident an insult and as a democratic citizen requests authorities to please take it as a major action item, so that anyone need not undergo the pathos in the name of religion and name. But, my piece is not against US. I am surprised as to why Indian media has had made it more important selling item than our Independence Day?

Over the entire day, the media be it Aaj Tak, Headlines India, NDTV India, CNN IBN and so on kept on televising SRK' interviews and were doing post-morterm on what Muslim stars undergo at US. But, there was hardly 5 minutes of discussion on why this country is celebrating this occasion, how did we attain this independence?

Musings upon these concerns will not result in anything. But, highlighting these incidents and selling them as much as it could be in the name of social causes is a deep blunder. As I write this piece, one of the journalists has been dying to get a a piece of masala from SRK that if he would seen an apology from US.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

The SRK issue demanded attention because of the "racial profiling" employed by the US authorities against a friendly state like India. The fact that it happened close to the Independence Day made it more significant. This is not an isolated incident as it followed similar treatment meted out to former president of India, Abdul Kalam. For whatever reason, it is inhuman to profile people based on caste, creed, or religion. It is a blatant violation of basic human rights. The media's focus on this issue was timely and not at all unwarranted.