Those Dumb Questions (and stories)

Sevanti Ninan's The Hoot takes apart the Indian TV News Media's tiresome coverage of the Pramod Mahajan crisis in Those Dumb Questions.

My favourite is:

One reporter demanded to know why a mentally unstable man was given a licence for a revolver. "he is mentally unstable now. When he was given the licence he must have been ok. The police gives the licence after due enquiries. It doesn't go to a mental hospital and give out gun licences."

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CNN-IBN did a story on a polling booth in Kerala where only one voter is registered, and how the election commission has to send 6 people every elections, in case he decides to vote. We're told that the 'This one voter has brought the entire Election Commission to his knees.' Yeah, right.

Then they tell us about the difficulties that CNN-IBN had to go through to get us the story - walk through leech infested jungles. They show us images of the reporters pulling out leeches and tell us patronisingly that this is what the reporters had to go through to get us that story, and CNN-IBN is a channel that'll do 'Whatever it takes'. Quite a sacrifice, innit?

Crossposted here.