Tuesday, August 04, 2009

News Analysis and Factual Reporting: Can The Hindu Tell the Difference?

The Hindu has published several pointless and downright bad articles recently. See today's 'Coping with Winds of Political Hostility' and 'Cromwell's grave revealed' under 'News Analysis'. Amar Singh may have his grievances with the Congress and Mukesh Ambani but that hardly qualifies it to be a 'Leader page article'. Likewise, the revelation of Oliver Cromwell's grave may be an fine titbit for someone interested in English history but there is very little news to be analyzed there. Same goes for yesterday's 'White House vacation: more than light-hearted fare'. A worthwhile news item perhaps but analysis? What is there to analyze in what Obama and his family talk about? The other article yesterday was 'Sunbeds - the surrealistic tan and the cancer'. Copied straight from The Guardian, it does not bother to ask what the relevance of sunbeds is in a country where getting skin cancer from tanning is the least of our worries.

Last Friday was worse. It had an interview with Lance Corporal Joe Glenton, the soldier who refused to follow military orders citing political reasons. What exactly is the message the paper is trying to send out here? That it is acceptable for a soldier to follow one's conscience and refuse perfectly legal orders from superiors? That soldiers who violate military discipline ought to be turned into heroes in the public eye by a journalistic fraternity committed to pacifism? Does The Hindu believe that the situation will become truly wonderful were the coalition forces to leave and be replaced by Mullah Omar and the Taliban? Is that what the paper is now rooting for?

The Chief Editor may be an ardent lover of The Guardian but somehow an ability to discern and select relevant items based on content and context is lacking.

5 comments:

Hindu Fundamentalist said...

good post asking the right questions.

Deshabhakta said...

it is just raddi content on raddi paper.

cbcnn_Pilid said...

Thanks, HF and Deshbhakta. Probably a paucity of committed columnists is the cause of this.

Sudhir said...

Please spare some thought for Amar Singh because he wrote this artcile from his "hospital bed" in a remote place called Singapore. I wonder what kind of an ailment it is that he is suffering from, which cannot be treated in his UP. Or is it that Mayawati/UPA refused to allot him one hospital bed in our country, that the poor guy had to go all the way to Singapore?

Also, any of you know if Guardian publishes articles from the Hindu in its editions?

cbcnn_Pilid said...

I have not seen any Hindu articles in The Guardian. At best, on India related matters, the paper might quote from The Hindu but that is not very many or often.