Sidin's points below are a fairly accurate description of the newsrooms I have been part of (between 1986-1991, and later, in different contexts, abroad, where, too, we "the foreign press" were criticised for not writing the "real story".
Salil On Fri, Dec 9, 2011 at 3:21 PM, Sidin Vadukut <[email protected]>wrote: > I am not an expert in India media, having only worked for a newspaper for > a very brief period of time. At least my paper, I know, writes and deals > with things like police reform. We had a columnist for a while who wrote > about this kind of thing. And we keep writing about it. Do people read > about it? I have no idea. I do not remember being inundated with reader > emails or thoughts on the topic of state reform or police reform in > response to these articles. We've written about the Natgrid, constitution > reform and a bunch of other topics. > > Do newspapers bring these things up? Yes. Do they bring it up more > frequently than it comes in public discourse? I would think so. Is there a > lot of pubic discourse on these topics? Not in my little experience offline > and on. > > I don't think newspapers operate in some detached vacuum from what the > public at large is talking about. Or in any case not all of them. I suppose > newspapers should be leading debate on the topics you mention. But if the > general traction for these topics are so low... what do you do? > > I am not being rhetorical. I am asking. What do you do? > > And I don't think there is deliberate intellectual dishonesty everywhere. > I have never, in my experience, sat through a single editorial meeting and > seen a topic of national relevance being played up or down for dishonest > reasons. This may not be a universal phenomenon. > > In fact, at some magazines, when a frivolous story was getting play, the editors and journos said, ah, ok, lets indulge readers this time. (I'm talking about India Today, 1987-1990). Salil Anyways. > > Sidin Sunny Vadukut > London correspondent, Mint - WSJ > www.livemint.com > Mobile: 07572441292 > > > > > On 9 Dec 2011, at 14:53, Srini RamaKrishnan wrote: > > On Thu, Dec 8, 2011 at 5:31 AM, Biju Chacko <[email protected]> wrote: > > What with the Kapil Sibal brouhaha, I thought I'd better find out more > > about what rights I actually have. > > > What rights do you actually have? How about none? One doesn't even > have the right to end up along with 6000 other Kashmiris in an > unmarked grave. > > Let's be clear about one thing here, India isn't a shining democracy. > Far from it. Most Indian states on their own would be declared fascist > regimes overnight [0]. > > I find it funny that the Indian intelligentsia get their panties in a > bunch because of some silly comments by a minister who should know > better, and yet mass graves, genocide, mass oppression and warfare on > its people go for the most part uncommented. > > Misplaced priorities: the newspapers of the world will rant incessant > about the merits of letting Walmart & co into India, and only make > silent noises about the lack of Police reform, even when ordered by > the Supreme court. How many times has the police reform issue been > mooted and vetoed? The lack of attention is not accidental, it is > deliberate intellectual dishonesty. > > What about the reforms to the constitution? Does anyone even bring up > the Sarkaria commission in the polite company of politicians these > days? > > > [0] I am not given to hyperbole, I can make a rather strong case for > quite a few large Indian states. > > >
