Do I qualify to rant about THE HINDU?

Considering my previous post about THE HINDU, my language looks poor because I wrote without a spellchecker, and in one shot, without organizing my thoughts. Basically, it was an outburst.

As a true journalist, one of THE HINDU associate has pointed out about my writing (in) capability. (Reference: COMMENTS section of post on THE HINDU)

True.

My rant is not untrue, however. It is an outpour of feelings.

As I mentioned, THE HINDU is like an English MURASOLI or like an English NAMATHU MGR. Proving this rant, in a true DRAVIDIAN PARTY style, THE HINDU associate:

· has chosen to divert the issue of poor standard of reporting - my actual issue
· has turned the rant into a personal blame game (narrow-minded etc.)
· has chosen to generalize the degeneration and arguing nothing wrong in being de-generated; not only that, but also further classification of my concerns as being narrow-minded.

· has simply brushed away the facts by simply attacking the person who wrote it, rather than looking at a counter view

· so sad, has unnecessarily crowning me as spokesman to diss THE HINDU
· further, forgetting the fact that this is my blog, and blogs were supposedly a journal where the owner records his/her own thoughts. So, I do think I have a right to express my feelings in my blog. However, THE HINDU person thinks what qualifications have I, to write such things.

And by the way, I am not the person who thinks low of THE HINDU, as I have mentioned is my aathangam.

True, I have looked around myself in India, and that is why, I have talked about the degeneration I have seen with my own eyes - TV, AANANDA VIKATAN so on and so forth. This does not, in no way, justify yet another valued newspaper to take to that path. Well, if THE HINDU precisely does that, I can do nothing. I am not a MORAL POLICE.

The fact that the comment chose not to address what I have written, does not imply that "spelling errors" or "wrong words" are rampant; THE HINDU is also becoming filled with just Movie junk articles, sensation finds a priority over smart reviews, so on and so forth.

The online publication is not a big journalistic wonder as well. There are expectations when a national newspaper goes online. THE HINDU belies all that, and in fact, prefers to earn money through Google Adsense. Even the so-called sensation Tamil dailies like DINAMALAR and DAILY THANTHI web versions have more to offer. There has been no visible improvement in THE HINDU website as well for past 2-3 years. To start with, there are no district-wise editions. No classifieds.

It is indeed true that the layout of THE HINDU has vastly improved as they embraced new techniques from a leading international newspaper consultant. But can THE HINDU claim the same with quality of their news articles?

Do you want facts? Take this…Oru paanai sorukku, oru soru padham…first time ever, on THE HINDU, there was an article on blogging. To quote this as an article without any depth is an understatement. The reason? This blogging article was about Bloggers from Chennai and none of the famous bloggers/blogs like Selective amnesia, Kiruba, Lazygeek, Ramz, Pavithra were mentioned in that article. Instead, we read about some blogs and bloggers, whose names were not heard of in Chennai Blogging cricles. This article was similar to the kind of "opinion articles" written by magazines like kumudam, kungumam etc. They interview their neighbours and friends, fill up four pages and call it an "article"…bah…!

My spelling error on my website can easily be corrected. When I am out of my outburst mood - edit it a bit, check spelling manually - it can be updated. (I am not going to do that… Instead, let my impulsive outburst remain the way it was created.)

Same cannot be said of the facts I have quoted about HINDU as an avid reader of HINDU. This is my rant, disappointment with THE HINDU.

I do not want to do quality assessment of all other English papers in India. For one, I have not read other newspapers regularly to comment on their perceived quality. And for next, because I am gifted with something called a BROADBAND INTERNET CONNECTION, I am exposed to many other blog sites and leading websites and good news aggregators like GoogleNews, I get my better dose of good articles.

There is no point anyway.
Let me recount a small anecdote that happened in my school - guess Chakra would remember it as well.

When I was in our sixth/seventh standard, I did not have fluency in English language. My English teacher used to say "Children, you must all read THE HINDU newspaper daily. You must learn written English from THE HINDU". Such was the effect of THE HINDU for many generations.

So, my language skills vastly improved that I went on to get many prizes in many competitions.

But off late, my friends and THE HINDU associate, who commented in my post, have accused me of my poor English skills.

I do still read THE HINDU daily.

And that exactly was my rant all about!

Update: A representative news report from today's edition of THE HINDU. What next? Muppathamman koil aadi vizha's fashion show winner dresses like Sania Mirza?