We started on our ShikshaDaan Yatra since March of this year and our April-May trip to Himachal just cut us off from television news. Before that we would tune into Times Now and watch the shouting match between Arnab and 10 other people and come away with Arnab’s point of view or opinion shoved down our throats … Not a debate, no differing points of view !!
We started watching Doordarshan again – bland as ever, but they give “news” not “opinions”.
Now recently we spent a month in Mongolia and the silence there has gone deep into our system. We are just not able to tune into Arnab anymore. I never flip to Times Now, even yesterday when they were showing PM Modi’s meeting with Netaji’s family… It was a shouting match.
I now realise the value of what Osho used to say “watch what you read or hear, just as good food nourishes your physical body, good books and hearing enlightened masters nourish your mind and soul. If you read a book on violence, it’s like participating in it.” (The words are mine, but the import is his). So I have dropped watching Arnab and all the news channels, when I want news, I will look up Doordarshan or I will check online portals.
Someone needs to advise Arnaba and all the news channels to stop sensationalising every murder, award returned, ditch covered or uncovered. Prannoy Roy had made the statement about Tabloidization … But his own baby NDTV is tabloid news, what with Barkha’s allegedly suspect Kargil coverage, or their rampant, many times hilarious anti-Modi stand !! The wonderfully inane interview that Barkha did with the equally inane and a has-been messiah Arvind Kejriwal was insulting the intelligent viewer. She was silenced finally by Sadhguru and with so much compassion… He truly is “Sadhguru” :). Srinivasan Jain got egg on his face with the editing of his interview with Baba Ramdev .. Hope he didn’t lick the egg, being a Jain. 🙁
All of us want news, we want to know what’s happening, but I don’t want to hear the journalist’s opinion …that’s not their role. I want to hear differing opinions of the panellists, not a shouting match where it’s just “noise”. I want to nourish my mind by listening to intelligent debates, expand my perspectives by hearing different points of view, I refuse to feed it with garbage and unfortunately that’s what all the private TV news channels spew …. Swachh Bharat ? Someday, certainly.
I agree.. But you dont have to get any triggers to stop watching his shows… Wonder if no one has told him that he is a loud mouth…
As for your trip.. I look forward to your Mongolia diary!!
Roji, I have already posted the “long” Mongolian diary. I posted it as a page so it remains static. Here’s the link – The Mongolian Month.
I agree. It was clear to me from Day-1 that Arnab was a pompous gas bag and a purveyor of disorder. Why did you (of all persons) not spot this earlier? Why Bindu-ji, why?
Kaushik-ji, I spotted it long back. Just didnt think of Doordarshan as an alternative for news till we were left without cable TV in Himachal. Also initially before he got pompous, Arnab did raise some good issues and asked some tough questions. The days when this trio of Barkha, Rajdeep and Arnab were with NDTV, were days of naivety for us viewers. Prannoy Roy was so good initially and still commands respect. The slide into tabloidization has been swift and terribly sad. The dumber the TV channels have become, the smarter the viewer has become or probably the other way around 🙂
Yes, when you put it that way, it makes a lot of sense! 🙂