Since November 26 2008, all the news channels in India, including some of the foreign news channels, were constantly beaming news and updates on the senseless attack on Mumbai by the terrorists. Yes, it is of course a major news that has to be covered from all angles coupled with unbiased and clear reports. It also means that this is not the only NEWS happening in the world.
During the same time, a little over a thousand kilometers down south east, a devastating cyclone, code named Nisha, was lashing the eastern part of Tamil Nadu. To me, this is equally important an event to be covered along with the Mumbai attacks. Unfortunately, the cyclone news was broadcast only by a couple of local news channels in and around Tamil Nadu, and none of the national news telecast had information on the magnitude of disaster the cyclone created.
Following are the pictures of ‘Chennai rains’ that I collected from some of the mails that I got from my colleagues. Thanks to the original source or ‘citizen journalists’ who took these pictures braving the rains!
If you Google for ‘Chennai rains + November’, you will get to see a lot more images!!
So, what could be the reason for such an indifferent attitude by the media?
- They thought Mumbai attacks news was more sensational than a usual act of fury by mother nature
- Unprecedented number of news viewers would be glued to their TV sets when a terrorist attack involving foreign nationals is covered – even if their numbers are between 1 and 10, among 200!
- It happened in Mumbai – and not in any other part of India like Orissa or Assam
- Very high monetization value considering the number of viewers at any given time during the attacks – a lot of LIFE INSURANCE ads flashed every 10 minutes!!
- Close to 200 died in Mumbai attacks, whereas only about 80 died, thousands homeless and 64,000 hectares of crops damaged due to the cyclonic storm – which is greater 200 or 80?
Well, there may a few more reasons to the media not giving even 1% of the importance that they gave to Mumbai attacks, but in the end they miserably failed in their duty – which is ‘broadcasting news from all corners of the world‘. People traveling to Chennai could have been forewarned if only the news channels have done their duty! They just decide and weigh the importance of news items according to the likings of the market. They know what kind of news will create a sensation in the market – remember the famous Arushi murder case and the destructive role played by the media in tarnishing the poor girl’s image?
Money is everything in this world, and the news media is just running after big dollars with its mouth wide open and tongue dripping with poison. What say you?
[...] national media coverage on Mumbai attacks. Another notable thing, along similar lines, is the complete non-coverage of the Chennai rains that happened during the same time frame by the so-called national media like [...]