The best thing about our News channels is that they provide you with everything but the news. While IndiaTV seems to have posted 90% of their reporters in wildlife sanctuaries, documenting naag-naagin ki shaadi or billi aur bandar ka pyar, others are more focused on 'duniya doob jayegi...sab khatm ho jayega' type of drama. I always wonder how they manage to get all these breaking news! One channel I used to admire was NDTV for its actual News instead of entertainment soaps until I met her...NDTV's most intelligent journalist.
I was sitting in a Dell press conference where the founder of the company was supposed to announce the launch of some new notebooks. Knowing that Michael Dell would be present himself, a large number of journalists appeared for the launch. The company was lauching a new range of notebooks with over 10 hours of battery life and an extended 9 hours with an attached battery unit. After describing all the 'cool' features of the notebook, the house was open for questions. Grabbing the opportunity to ask the question first, an NDTV female correspondent shouted out her question (waiting for the mike could've meant loss of opportunity for that very first and the most innovative question).
She stood up to ask the question in a voice that was loud enough to compensate for the mike. Finding the laptop launch weird for some reason, she asked, "The world is reeling with economic crisis, with fuel prices going up, economies struggling to control inflation. Do you think in such a scenario where people don't have money for the fuel or even food, they'll have money to buy laptops!" Well, as far as I knew, laptops weren't meant to be a substitute for either fuel or food. But anyways, this intellectual question from my favorite lady added fuel to fire. Post this question, there were queries about everything but the real topic of discussion--the new laptops.
Yawning at the questions and answers session, a fellow IT journalist quietly asked me, "Are we at the right place!"...Well I guess we had reached some place where all the News channel reporters flocked to get their BREAKING NEWS.
8 comments:
HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!! =)).. I am literally LOLing!! =))...
Well this article makes me feel sooo good... comparing myself with the most intelligent reporter... :D
Don't say that man...I really admire her ;-)
no wonder you really admire her ;) :D
satire is well received and is adequately proportioned with chunks of journo know-how
Well..this shifting away from the topic happens quite often... some times it actually gets interesting.. some times you along with the rest of the crowd actually wonder.. ARE WE AT THE RIGHT PLACE???:) :)and I am clueless abt the actual IQ of this journo whom u admire :)lol
Experience speaks...
well its true... u get everything but the new on the news channels now a days
Though the reporter mentioned in the blog was excessively adamant and her over enthusiasm was a bit too much. But television news is aimed at a larger audience compared to specialized programmes/paper/magazines. Most of the channels do not want to a direct product launch story. They will try to work out different angles. And sometimes which might not have a direct relation to the product in question. That needs to be understood. In this case, how was Dell dealing with a slowing economy was the right question. And that was asked...:)And you were much at the right place....
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