An Evening of Comebacks

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The New Hampshire primaries are finally over...a record turnout of close to half a million people and unexpected comebacks that stumped political pundits. It was a remarkable victory for Hillary Clinton precisely because the results hinged on a wild card: votes from independents who outnumbered both registered Democrats and Republicans in a previously staunchly red state. As the voting continued through the day, news channels reported that polling stations were, in fact, running low on blue ballots. Ironically, independent votes also ensured the return of John McCain among the Republican candidates. But Clinton's victory was the bigger bombshell for analysts who, only hours before the unanticipated became the imminent, had had no hope for her unless she "rehauled" her campaign strategies. The experts had gravely shaken their hands reacting to Bill Clinton's attack on Obama on Monday and had made predictions on how the "spouse-effect" will....

The (Blue) Road Ahead

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You'd think that Labour Day is a day when working America unwinds... since offices and the stock market are closed... and the liquor stores are open. But with just a little over a year(!) to go before the blue and the red states fight it out and/or change colours, it wasn't just a long lazy weekend. Fall campaign kickoffs had been announced last week and so on Monday, voters did show up at caucuses to listen to what the front-runners had to offer. I thought I would unwind in front of the TV before my semester began on Wednesday. Instead I ended up listening to the politicking Obamas and the Clintons till midnight, sitting in my apartment in Providence, Rhode Island. (Rhode Island, the smallest state, they say, is literally and figuratively "the ocean state". But more on the voters' pulse nearer the time.) Double-teaming can pull crowds if your....

Tell me not in mournful numbers that life is full of BREAKING NEWS

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Logically, it seems to make sense. If we are BREAKING news to our viewers, it's only fair that we alert them to the nature of our work. So the first couple of times 'Fear in the Sky' (a good story)goes on air, it's BREAKING NEWS. Is the excitement conveyed out of place? Maybe it isn't. Maybe my own ideas of BREAKING NEWS need to be revised. After all there are networks that are BREAKING NEWS pretty much all day! I think it's time I woke up to realize that networks, in varying degrees, are trying to dispense with the passivity admitted in and attached to perhaps a more conventional definition of BREAKING NEWS. 'BREAKING',these days, is not an adjective but a transitive verb used in the active. It's no longer merely 'We bring you news as it breaks' but also 'We break news that no other network breaks'. But....

BREAKING NEWS

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"Enough!" cries the ticker-boy. "All should cry Beware! Beware!. My flashing screen! My floating hair! Weave a circle round me thrice and close your eyes in holy dread. For I on BREAKING NEWS have fed, and not the cafe-curd-rice." ....

A Thin Line

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I have always been drawn to the notion of 'performance' in broadcast journalism. No, I am not hinting at hidden desires to be a prime-time anchor someday. What I am suggesting instead is the responsibility that any news channel shoulders chasing 'stories' and 'bytes', an act that is arguably crucial to the survival of any competent network. Performance surely, at an obvious level, involves the reporter facing millions doing a live link or the anchor providing us with context, acting like a sieve of sorts, giving us meaning out of formless welter. Performance also automatically implies efficiency of all those behind the camera. I don't need to elaborate on the importance of either the camera person, or the editor or the assignments crew... of the whole team that needs to perform in tandem. (If you ask me, beginning to work at a TV news desk after five years of 'Eng....