Breaking News: Vatican Issues 10 Commandments for Drivers.... Public-at-large Yawns.

(Photo Credit: The Veblog)

Is the Vatican issuing 10 commandments for drivers news?!? A joke, yes, but news?!?! I hate the path much of Indian media is taking - and that is in the footsteps of American media. If there is anything I hate more than the inane bullshit that tabloidesque newspaper supplements print, it's the damn channels on TV, taking a dump on the general public 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. (btw the use of the term "24x7" is not a dig at NDTV specifically).

Problems with the contemporary media:

• The whole concept of dedicated 24x7 news channels presupposes that there is enough news out there for every second of every day.
• Ethics are so terribly lacking - I remember when the bombs went of in Sarojini Nagar in Delhi, their own coverage showed how reporters were actually getting in the way of doctors in the emergency ward who were trying to give immediate attention to very seriously injured patients - all to get close-ups of bloody patients.
  
• They love to gloat about their showy but really unimportant achievements (such as in having the maximum viewership) - which takes me to my next point...
  
• TRPs = retardation.
• The way they influence mobs in protest. Not only do they give a distorted image, but with recent reports, it seems they actually have a role in agitating them.
  
• Their wholly unscientific reporting of 'scientific' studies. For example, they reported how scientists have narrowed down a gene related to monogamy. The popular media then extrapolated this study to the human race, and in their typical sensationalist bullshit started predicting that such gene could perhaps one day be manipulated to 'cure' polygamous humans. It takes three words to destroy this prophecy: Human Cultural History. Humans have been polygamous for the majority of their history, yet monogamy has now come to be accepted as the status quo in most complex societies. Thus, polygamy / monogamy is a cultural issue and not a genetic one. But examining the whole issue isn't that exciting.
• Bollywood exists because of the media, and I hate Bollywood। The media today creates people with chai-wallah faces like Shah Rukh Khan into 'hot superstars.'
• 
  
• To be continued...