India: Mistakes, Media and Mumbai
The terror attacks have brought more media attention to Mumbai. The world is now aware and cautious of the situations in India. Many countries have already issued travel advisory for the visitors to India. The English Cricket team has called off its participation in the upcoming test series. And the world-at-large probably has already forgotten and moved on to worry about other things.
‘CNN, MSNBC and FOX are good for nothing’, cries Ptcbus at ‘Random Rambles':
“I was trying to find out the latest happenings in Mumbai this evening. All that I was able to see was Anderson Cooper presenting some award to someone, Hannity’s America on Fox and some shady prison documentary on MSNBC. Why do they call themselves News Channels? I had to rely on websites from BBC and other Indian sites to find out the latest videos and news stories. What do these channels achieve by keeping the American population ignorant of world news? American media: Shame on you.
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2227 Hrs Nov 27: The only news channel that is broadcasting any news about the Mumbai attacks right now is CNBC (which is a business news channel). Pathetic!”
Local Mumbai newspapers: Image by Flickr user James Cirdland, used under a Creative Commons License
Let’s turn our focus to the Indian media, was their lack of digression a mistake? Could they have done any better to support the local police? Did they do a pathetic job as well? ‘Yes!’ replies Veetrag in his post, ‘Pennies prevail over prudence’:
“One disappointing thing that has emerged is irresponsibility of media. Role of media is to provide information to the public but in a proper way and taking care of that they are not divulging important information. I am watching TV channels – NDTV, IBN-CNN, India TV, Sahara Samay, Star News and many other and have realized that none of them are doing their job properly. In this unfortunate event they are trying to sensationalize the information and acting irresponsibly.
First mistake they are making is providing sensitive information such as movement of NSG and Police forces to public. I am sure, this information is not useful to public at this time. At this time, people need to find out where their relatives are, who is injured, which hospitals are people taken to, what blood type is needed and where. These are much more important information if provided to public it would be helpful. Yes, people need to know what area are safe, what is the progress but giving step by step information is not useful. There are rumors (and probably true) that the same information is retrieved by terrorists and can be used against the brave souls who are trying to protect our lives.”
Has Mumbai survived this onslaught? Or have the insurgents prevailed? SriRam Vadlamani notes at his blog Indianomics:
“Were they successful?
• BSE and NSE the two important stock exchanges were closed on Thursday
• India’s sovereign rating by S&P revisited but remains intact.
• England pulls out of the cricket series and re-think the coming test series.
• Champions league is postponed.
• Most countries issued travel advisory.
• Hotels and aviation stocks are losing more than 6% in today’s trading.”
He notes amongst other things that the Indian GDP is seen at 7.6%. Inflation is down to 8.84%, which he adds, ‘is something to cheer about’ and shows some positive signs:
“Terrorists were successful to some extent. But, Sensex was much more resilient and matured in its behavior. It did not tank 1000 odd points because of panic. Only select stock like aviation and hotel sectors took a beating, which is expected. Tourism, aviation and hotel sectors will see a downturn from now on, but the other sectors should be able to pick the mood up. The mood might be down for a few months but India will bounce back. If there is positive which can be take out of this, it is the resilience of India, its economy and most importantly its people.”
This post is part of the Global Voices coverage on the terror attacks in Mumbai, India on November 26, 2008.
47 comments
Many ppl here in chennai are not able to catch the news as the tv s are not available due to continous rainfall for over 3 days .
I m actually catchin all the news on CNN , where there is live tv and its from there that i found live news on CNN-IBN
So actually CNN-IBN themselves do not have a live tv and i thank CNN international here
Although CNN has done a cgood job of covering the Mumbai tragedy, it is yet again an American view of the world. CCN’s anchors continue to make judgements on the air about the situation. Who are they to question why the indian government declined help form the Americans and others, how do they know that the cellular service in India is “unrelaible”, etc. They continue to “spin” the news rather than persent it.
I would switch to unbiased coverage by NDTV.com or some other real news channel versus a propaganda macine like CNN
To see what is happening in India today is to look in the rear view mirror of what we did wrong in Sri Lanka. When we suffered terrorist attacks, we blamed it on foreign interference, namely India. India does the same today: the Prime Minister in a televised message blamed a “group based outside the country”. Both countries have failed to realize that the root of the problem is not outside our shores; the problem lies within. Messages from the Indian public are scrolled continuously on NDTV, most of them blaming the government for inadequate security and calling for a severe crackdown on terrorism (as if they weren’t already trying all this time). Not one message asked the question: “what drove these Indians to do this to other Indians?” …
So here’s a word of advice from a Sri Lankan to our big neighbour. Don’t go down the path we have taken. Don’t be tempted to sacrifice the freedom of another for your own safety. Be smarter than us. Look within and find the disease that is causing this fever called terrorism. For now, your terrorists seem to be ad hoc groups of lethal young men. With every attack in your country a new terrorist group with a new label takes credit. That’s how it starts. The day will come when a determined and motivated leader manages to coalesce the many fingers of extremism into a hard-hitting fist, with an ideology as compelling as it is evil. When that happens, you will pay a price in blood and sorrow for generations to come. We know this because we have seen it all before.
Just wanted to say that as a New Yorker, my thoughts are with the people of Mumbai and India.
I make no excuses for the ignorance and insensitivity of some US TV news anchors, but there are plenty in the public who are following the events through many sources. Attacks of this nature are attacks on all of us, and we must combat it by pulling closer together rather than being ripped apart.
Blessings on the commandos who are risking their lives to save others. Blessings on the people of Mumbai. Our hearts are with you.
I was reading through the posts above and as an American I want to say that, I’d love to see India’s media networks here in America to get the “non-american” slant on what has taken place. Unfortunately, it seems that our American media is everywhere in the world for all to see and the media of every other culture is so localized that we don’t have a chance to hear the “other” side of the story.
Please understand that most American’s suffer the same indignation with the American media as do our counterparts throughout the world. Propoganda is a weapon and our media networks know this only too well. Regardless of how they portray the situation, please know that many of us (Americans) are gravely concerned and wish only the best for our friends in India! May the light and warmth of a new day shine on you and yours.
I am an American writing to this blog to see what the real conditions are.
My friend and her husband and baby will be traveling to India to go visit his father (her husband is Indian with an American passport.) She is scared because of the travel restrictions suggested on our news. Is this true? They are traveling to show the baby to his father for the first time, but they are a little scared due to reports about this violence.
What’s the real story?
wow, wise words from a Sri Lankan! thanks–
yes, we certainly should learn from our neighbour’s experience. these events are so much more complex than the media likes to make out.
you learn to read between the lines of CNN etc, at least they’re devoting so much coverage to it. for those of us who have no access to NDTV, IBN-CNN this is a comfort.
It is sad that our American news only think in terms of how this could effect them or the Brit’s/americans there. This is more reason News channels need to learn how people look at the way they report! They want to sationalize everything, and make it a sitcom, instead of good journalism. They told so many lie’s during this election/covered so many lie’s from others, we are lucky at all the people wish’s to have Obama as Prez became a reality! Fox has become a joke, and CNN is becomeing a joke right behind it. We don’t need guts and gore! We need to wait for facts and show compassion to those in India who are suffuring, and I hope Obama brings all countries together in a dignified way to fight this kind of behaviors!
CNN-IBN is interviewing Mahesh Batt for so long. Who needs a filmmakers opinion at this hour?
I think since the media channels have been asked not to air live shots, they dint find anything to fill their airtme
My deepest sympathies to the people of Mumbai and India. The American media are being blamed for not covering enough and for covering too much (i.e., letting the terrorists know what the authorities are doing). First, consider that this occurred on our national holiday of Thanksgiving, when virtually all news staff are off and only skeleton crews are on duty. The principal shows mentioned and complained of were programmed long before this tragedy. Second, the networks cannot make any more sense of ongoing developments than the local government, and it had imposed a blackout. (The desperate desire for knowledge is competing with the need to protect the government forces; we wish networks would be more careful about broadcasting tactical information.) Third, American talking heads feel a need to fill the empty air; we are stuck with these same airheads all year round. Our news anchors will, however, logically speculate upon the relationship between this tragedy and our country because, well, they are American networks.