How ‘dramatic’ media served rumour as fact in B’lore Blast

Bangalore, April 18: Every day a senior television journalist could be seen telling his audience that in his long career of journalism one thing he has learnt is that it's more important to be accurate than being first.

Although these are not his exact words, it's not the journalism of being "first", but journalism of "accuracy" that he stresses upon.

In the world of "breaking news" journalism, being first holds great importance. And, the importance of being first among Indian media houses has reached a comical height, as arm-chaired journalists sitting in their air-conditioned office rooms conveniently report and write on events happening miles away, including foreign shores.

The latest example is yesterday's (April 17) bomb blast in Bangalore.

Around 10.30 am in Malleshwaram, located in north Bangalore, a bomb went off just few metres away from the BJP headquarters. A few hours later, local media reported that another bomb blast occurred in Hebbal area.

Later, the police denied any such blast in Hebbal. Then the media quickly corrected itself and said the Hebbal blast was a "rumour". The funniest part is that it was the media itself which spread the rumour.

This clearly shows that our journalists report before they reach the spot. And, if their report turns out to be wrong, they call it a rumour.

Media is also quick to speculate the involvement of groups and organisations behind the blast even before official probing agencies zero in on the real culprits.

If one media group is suspecting the hands of Indian Mujahideen (IM), then the second one is pointing its fingers towards Laskar-e-Taiba (LeT) in the blast.

In such a scenario, news junkies are sure to get confused as they get trapped in the ‘fastest-finger-first' news labyrinth.

OneIndia News