Breaking News all around

BREAKING NEWS - BREAKING NEWS - BREAKING NEWS .

The words are being flashed on our TV Screens for quite some time now. Just plain “News” wont do – its got to be “Breaking News”. I have always wondered what this phrase is all about? But before we go to the ‘breaking’ part, let me tell you how fascinated I was when back in school, I learnt that ‘NEWS’ itself was actually an acronym for North, East, West and South! It was the print media which would report “Happenings from North, East, West and South”, that gave us this word, NEWS, which we read while we had our breakfast.

Now, the electronic media give us the “Breaking News”. When a dozen news channels vie with each other and their tele-journos run at break-neck speed scramble over each other to reach out to the only guy there who knows it all to catch the sound bytes for the world to listen to, obviously there is going to be some rib-cracking, bone-crushing and elbow-shattering in the process. But what else can these poor television journalists, do if they have to please their bosses and keep their jobs, but to stick out that microphone as close to the “person-in-the-know”? So what if they have to break a rib or two in the process?

“Sir, you have lost your entire family in this tragic event – how do you feel?”
Now what else can someone, whose floating rib has just been twisted at 45 degrees from the natural position, possibly think of? I am talking about the TV reporter! But then so long as the newsreader sitting in cool comforts of the recording studio loves the question what does one care? But then the news-reader wants to prove to be the bigger boss, high up there .... “Are you happy with the steps taken and the support provided by the government, Sir?”
That comes when he has yet to recover from the blow dealt by the tragedy and then the take in the blow dealt by the first question!

If you have just tuned into the channel, you would think it is the efforts of the government that has...actually caused all this... but, somehow, it perhaps is not – or so I would like to believe! Anyway, the big boss, the Managing Editor or any other fancy designation that he/she chooses to give him/herself, has also to worry about the viewers – the number of viewers, I mean! What with the “Do aankhe – barah news channels” situation these days, it is getting very competitive for the TV Media! “Don’t go anywhere”, they proclaim, as there are some deeper, profound, probing questions to be asked, as they go into “a break”. Phew! You sigh as this is the only break that you can really bear!

Political parties have resolved to give this “Breaking News” stuff some real meaning. But How? Simple. By breaking glass-panes; by breaking the sight-screens of cars and buses; by breaking the beautiful glass façade of 5-star hotels….do I have to tell you….breaking just about everything that can be broken, isn’t that sufficient?
They break the law.
They break - nay shatter our faith, our confidence and our trust.
They break the promises they made to get elected, dammit!
They break them all. Collectively they have truly lent a whole new meaning to the phrase “Breaking News”

Can we break free from these political parties who break just about anything on the pretext of protecting our culture? The much-celebrated “freedom” that we Indians have got was from the clutches of the British. When are we going to break free from the clutches of our own politicians? From the self-appointed custodians of morality, culture and values? From our corrupt officials? From … c’mon, you know ’em all – the ones who hold us captive, bound to our traditions, our cultures!

A thousand freedoms await us!

Talking of freedom, we now see a clash of interest amongst two sections of the media – the electronic media (as in the television channels) and the electronic-internet media, the blogosphere! Both are supposedly free and yet some are more free than the others. You pay for the channels you watch but you read our blogs – absolutely free. But this is not the freedom we were talking about, were we? We were talking about freedom of expression. So it happens that by curbing the freedom of one blogger, to express his thoughts, the television media has launched an attack on a blogger’s freedom of expression by forcing the blogger to apologise and withdraw his post! Perhaps it is an attempt to break the resolve of some fearless bloggers who have begun to post a criticism of the manner in which the terror attacks were covered. It was perfectly alright until they were attacking the politicians. Wasn’t explaining the criticisms enough, as was done to the print media who also incidentally said the same thing?

One attack leads to another! Naturally, we see a counter-attack in the blogosphere! A rare display of unity among bloggers who have joined hands in cyberspace to protest against this kind of dadagiri or should we say ‘didigiri’?. A resolve not to yield to the pressures or rather, not to break up so that the TV news channels have another “Breaking News”!

BREAKING NEWS - BREAKING NEWS - BREAKING NEWS .

Finally I would like to give you all some small bits of “Breaking News”
1. Indyeah has tagged me! This “tagging” phenomenon is unique to the blogosphere. I would love to do it, but I need some time, Indyeah. Thanks for your patience!

2. Priyank Thatte who writes his blog “Final Transit” (though I have suggested him to change it to “Always in Transit”), has awarded this blog with a unique award – A new word coined by him. Thank you very much, Priyank! I am honoured!
Text of his comment has been reproduced below:
"Gopinath, I am baffled at your talent to give a humorous twist to virtually anything. I am coining a new term: Gopinathification.
Gopinathification, noun:
Transformation of virtually any news, situation or information into a totally different perspective by looking at it humorously.
e.g. He Gopinathified the sad events at Mangalore in this blog post.
Do use this phrase in your future post (its the only award I can offer) :P"

BREAKING NEWS - BREAKING NEWS - BREAKING NEWS .

3. Hurray! This is my 50th post!
Thanks to all those who have encouraged me to write this ‘whatnonsanz’! Also thanks to my editorial team, which includes my laptop, my modem, my sofa, my living-room and more important - the Editor-in-Chief of this blog, the index finger of my right hand, which clicked on the “Publish Post” button on the Blogger dashboard for whatever nonsanz that sprung from my cerebral clutter. If it was not for the generosity shown by this index finger, I would have been burdened with so many rejected posts that I would have to go in for a hard disk with infinite capacity! And more importantly , I would have broken!
(Pssst: Frankly, I would have posted another 100 posts by now, but for this bully Ed-in-Ch! I am seeking to be free from this tyrant someday! Need some serious reforms in the blogging space too!)
4. Friends, this is no great record that I have broken, I accept. But I don’t wish to break records, I only wish to see readers break into laughter – that is all. Did I hear someone say “My God! That means he’s going to write some more of this whatnonsanz?”

So do break your silence , speak your mind and post your comments!
Celebrate your freedom - you dont need to fret or break into a sweat nor have to fight for it all over again!
AND DO CONTINUE TO POST WHATEVER YOU WANT TO SAY IN YOUR BLOGPOSTS!
Finally, dont go anywhere I will be back after a short break!
Short, incidentally can mean a week or a month!