Journalism has been a profession I admire since my childhood. What first sparked off my interest was this serial aired on good old Doordarshan - " Reporter" where Shekar Suman played the title role. This made me think of journalists as the guys who used to always search for the truth, reveal corruption and help the common man. With time I realised that much of it was made up, but still they were bound to get the correct news to people which would otherwise remain hidden from them.

From what I observed in the holidays, it seems to have taken a totally new and alarming dimension.There is no longer a human touch, nor does there seem to be the time to assert the truth before going ahead with the news. Today it just is a rush to get out first with the news and create a controversy whenever possible.With television news channels popping up everday, the media really has its presence everywhere. But the quality of journalists seem to have gone down really. I could find guys who would not string a few words together properly questioning the nations leaders about their stands on various issues. I seem to be having more knowledge than people hosting the sports sections of various news channels. ( Btw, all the sports shows seem to be handled by women, are there no Alpha Males in the journalism sector !! )

Interviews are just turning out to be fights. Karan Thapar on being interviewed said this " When Kapil Dev started crying on my show, I realised he should not stop, for if he does it would be extremely bad for the show. All that I wanted to do was make sure his tears did not stop, for there are two things that really sell on T.V- tears and children ". I do like the man for his unnerving style of conducting interviews, but he does go overboard at times and this quote from him just portrays the attitude of today's mediapersons.

Two issues which bought out the worst of news channels in these holidays :
1. The Benazir Bhutto Assasination: A private news channel manages to get hold of her husband, Asif Aii Zardari the day after her killing and the first question they ask him is Who do you think will lead the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) in the upcoming elections? All that the man could say was that he had not yet put his wife's body to rest and that was the only issue he was concerned about at that point of time ( Although, he later went on to take the helm is a different issue ) . And yes, what does the Indian media gain by spending hours on the discussion of Prevez Musharaff's regime and how is it going to affect his governing policy ??

2. The " Mumbai Molestation" : An incident which highlited the insecurity in the city of Mumbai had to be given prime importance. But that was not to be done by getting into the privacy of two victims. The victim's reply to television news channels :" I never thought that this would become such a big issue. We did not want to take it up seriously as it would only lead to troubles in our lives " . Shouldn't the journalists have left this news alone and let those two women live in peace, rather than reminding them of the horrors that they had to go through ?

Truly a pity that journalism has come down to such levels. But a few standouts still remain - Nirupama Swaminathan's ( I think I got the name correct ) first hand "politically correct" account of the Bhutto assasination despite being a few feet away from the spot and Rajaraman's bold questioning of the "morally justified " victorious Australian Captain Ricky Ponting.