I had heard about she going over board about reporting during Kargil war but could not believe it untill I actually saw with my own eyes the way she was reporting the recent Mumbai Terror attacks. All respect I had for the reporter is lost.
I can recount so many instances where the reporter has made so many blatant mistakes as a reporter. For instance, she would keep saying "I am at this place which I am not supposed to disclose due to security reasons, but i can tell you what I can see from here .."...yeah ..right ...nice way of saying "I have been asked not to say the following words &&*$%%### " . Barkha, no one in public wanted to know the positions of the NSG Commandos, MariCos, Policemen, we didnt care from which end you saw the Commandos shooting, atleast not when the mission is still on. And then was it all necessary to disclose the facts like the commandos have been airdropped on the top of the Nariman House. I am not sure if the reporters where allowed to leak this out, if it was I have no complaints but if it wasnt then I must say all the reporters must be sued.
I learnt that in another instance when one of the Commandos was climbing up from the rear side to catch the terrorists by surprise, one of the "smart" reporters and a very "talented" cameraman actually showed this act live on tv. Guess what, the terrorists who were actually carrying satellite phones, which was no secret to anyone, saw this live and managed to escape by throwing a grenade near the place where the commando was supposed to enter. "Great" work by the journalist for jeopardising life of a commando !! You surely got the bite of this action and probably won your boss's praises but you have certainly shown to the world that you dont have any moral ethics.
Sometimes it makes me wonder if these journalists are ever trained on ethics, moral issues. Are they ever taught there is a fine line between good journalism and outright blatant irresponsible journalism?? I saw a movie recently "Mumbai meri jaan" and was very impressed with the way they have depicted the current state in journalism!! Things in journalism have got out of hands now.
Barkha Dutt recently during the Mumbai terror caught hold of an already worried and stressed out relative of a person who was trapped in the oberoi hotel. Just imagine this, a person is waiting anxiously for more than 30 hours, constantly hoping and praying that the next person who comes out of the hotel alive to be his brother, with whom he has had no contact for over 26 hours or so, and there is this great highly rated reporter asking him questions like how do you feel ?? and then answering the question herself "you must be worried and tensed", and then holding up the mike against him. I mean what is she expecting here ...does she expect that he should cry ?? well, she almost managed to do so . The man had nothing to say and understably so, all he said "what can I say ??.....what can I say ??". Barkha, take some time out of your busy schedule of harassing people emotionally and go and watch the movie "Mumbai meri jaan".
Tell me guys were you actually interested to know what Barkha Dutt was able to see from the top of another building the location of which she was not supposed "disclose"?? Werent you praying that the whole ordeal come to an end soon ?? Did you gain anything fruitful from the long shot which Barkha Dutt showed to us from the "undisclosed" location at some high altitude ?
Obviously we all are interested to know how our brave Commandos went about their business but we also understand the criticality of the situation. We would love to understand how the clean up job was done by the army but not on the cost of the jeopardising the whole operation especially when the terrorists are carrying the satellite phones. Who knows the terrorists might have been in constant touch with their "army" friends in Pakistan over the phone to know about the whereabouts of the Indian army outside the hotel. Did your bosses ask you about how the mission was taken by the Indian army during your weekly group meetings?? Did your annual appraisal depend on it ?? I dont understand what was the hurry ?? We would have very well waited till the mission was over and then learn about the strategy carried out by the Commandos.
Another thing what I feel is, it would have been a much wiser decission to cordon off the entire South Mumbai area. The reason am saying this is imagine what would have happened if one of the terrorists went totally bezerk and just simply ran out of the hotel shooting random in all directions killing few more people on the roads. who would have been responsible for that ?? I am sure the journalists would have pounced upon the army.
I am not saying that the entire media reporting during the terror attack was BS. There were some good parts as well for example I liked the way Shrinivas Jain did the reporting on the field. I did not see him jumping around like monkey to get unrequired footages and for that matter even chasing around already stressed, mentally frustrated relatives of people who were still trapped in the hotel. Now that is called good journalism.
But for the occassions of some blatant, out and out over-stepping of the line dividing good journalism and bad journalism , media does quite a good job of creating awareness amonsgt common people!!
