There are times anchors go bonkers. They give prominence to undeserving people and subjects and waste lot of air time. This is more so after Delhi gang rape.
Someone or the other comes out with a statement that offends women and he or she gets national publicity. For a petty politician all he has to do to get publicity is to say something against women. He is famous. For such a person there is no such thing as bad publicity. Any publicity is good publicity.
Sometimes anchors give free publicity to someone who did not even make an attempt to get it. One singer was suddenly the rage on news channels. His songs were said to be against women and pornographic. One song was said to be perverse. Not many knew about the singer and his songs before the controversy. After the controversy he is known all over India. His most controversial song got more than a million viewers.
The swing of the pendulum from one end to another continues. Anchors who once talked in favour of freedom of speech and expression are suddenly at the other end. They invite for discussion people who want a ban on item songs.
Some insignificant person says something and that becomes a matter of discussion for prime time. Someone talks of rapes talking place in India and not in Bharat, someone blames co-education, someone blames English education, someone blames films, someone blames skirts, and they become matters of discussion. In India there is CBFC which certifies films. Many certified films are opposed by people for some reason and such people get publicity. If a song is popular and there are mothers who dance with their children to that song there should be no problem. It seems some anchors and panelists don’t like popular culture and want to impose their view on others.
One MP made a remark about women protesters and that day he dominated the news. He apologised for that but anchors did not let him go. The MP did not want to another controversy. He appeared contrite and penitent but seemed happy to be on channels.
Many panelists talk inanities and banalities. They talk of patriarchal society, mindset, police coming from society, and such things. Rape is a crime and should be punished. Everything else is immaterial.
