The Dwindling Hindu...

…news standards really!
Gone are the days, when the national newspaper THE HINDU stood for some strong writing, firm observations, good news reports, assertive reviews. Also, for a news to be mentioned in THE HINDU, it has to have some importance and significance. Gone are those days.

Earlier, I had lamented about an incident as trivial as "Dayanidhi Maran switching on a scanner machine at Meenambakkam airport" qualifying to be an article on THE HINDU

Offlate, the kind of reporting that comes on THE HINDU leaves a lot to be desired. In this age of internet, where people like us have access to news right away, and read several viewpoints - many honest. But on other side, take HINDU newspaper (there is no difference between online and print edition of HINDU. Even DAILY THANTHI and DINA MALAR have district editions, but in HINDU, you get a common edition. But are ready to charge a premium on newspaper cost, and fill up with sub-standard reports.

Ok, why this general outburst?

We used to have decent sports reviews long time back. Very honest view points used to emerge, and some of the articles about game spirit used to be soul-searching. But pick up the newspaper today. It is all about writing "cool" opinions, not honest reviews. For instance, when India lost its first one-dayer to South Africa, it was so apparent that Indian top order had collapsed badly, and the fielding was not up to the standard. But the match report daren't even turn its eye on that aspect of being critical about poor performance. Instead, it waxes eloquently about some good Indian bowling, and the game of Yuvraj singh and after. There is absolutely no mention of a couple of bowlers who were belted mercilessly by Lankan batsmen at Hyderabad. Nothing critical about bad line from such bowlers, the poor fielding form. Come to batting. I know that Indian top order got out so soon, and from middleorder on, people played decently. And all this happened so quick. But I don’t think it would have been so quick that the HINDU reporter would have failed to spot this and report the same. Such reporters do no good to lovers of sports or staunch support readers of HINDU paper or simply, to even HINDU's reputation.

I am not singling out one reporter, but he is one sample for the dwindling standards of HINDU reporting these days.

Ok, is this one-off? Nope.

Some of the political news items pertaining to Tamilnadu, makes me wonder at times -- "Am I reading a MURASOLI or NAMADHU MGR ad feature section?". And then, I frantically search header and footer to see those cute little words called "This is a featured AD". No, oh boy, its an actual news item from so-called "National Unbiased Newspaper"

Spelling mistakes have become so common these days. Adopting modern technology and using Spellchecker software might be supposedly a breeze of task for THE HINDU. But the bane of spellchecker is that wrong words might sit in many places. Legally, they have correct spelling. Cant a national newspaper even take care of such things? 

Page 2 and Metroplus are carrying articles that are of no value and are becoming more and more mere movie-oriented stuffs.

First, TV channels took Tamil people for granted, that public wants only movie related stuffs, and were churning them out in masses. With concepts like SET TOP BOX and SUMANGALI CABLE VISION, the general taste of Tamil public was restricted and exposed only to movie-relates stuffs. It is big money for TV CHANNELS. Why would they want to produce useful stuffs?

Next, was the turn of so-called family magazines like ANANDA VIKATAN (oh, ANANDA VIKATAN is now a SOGAMANA KADAN…and even KUMUDAM seems to be a decent magazine to have in hand these days...but those cringes later…) that are happy to have a feature every week on Nameeta or Asin or Shreya, and generate reams and reams of nonsense about actors and actresses, direct translations of FILMFARE/FEMINA or from some other website. Even humour is borrowed and not original hassyam. Because the other choices of magazines are worse, people accepted what ANANDA VIKATAN had to offer, and ANANDA VIKATAN is happy to concentrate more and more on Nameeta's assets, thus blunting

And in HINDU, editors and reporters want to be so "cool" (Check out "ALMOST FAMOUS" movie which is all about Rock stars, rock journalists and the deteriorating journalism), they do not want to think, they do not want to write with a spine, and we get sub-standard junk (a junk that is sub-standard…can you believe it?) as news reports.

Come on chaps, you are not going to have an arrest warrant issued, just because you thought Indian Cricket Team's top order batted badly and collapsed eventually!

<<Rejoinder: Yes, I know that I need not stick with HINDU, if I feel HINDU is so substandard, and there are more choices availabl and I need not bitch about HINDU. I can either take it or leave it. All that I am aware of!!! Well, I am expressing my aathangam about a degeneratio - like in a TRUE INDIAN SPIRIT >>