Thursday, June 08, 2006

Let there be some Space for News: Media

Alright, it was a tragedy! That Pramod Mahajan was fatally shot by his own brother, that he was such a young and promising leader, that the family had to go through the ordeal in the days that followed the incident till his demise and to cap it all, that his son kissed the doors of death and returned to life while his aide was not all that fortunate, all of these couldn't have been any worse for the family.
But why waste all the front page space on a family affair? And this seems to go on and on in the media that seems not to be getting enough news to fill its pages. The BJP leaders have visited Rahul Mahajan who is now in police custody - that is only to be expected of them and is an act of basic courtesy that they do so; the party ought to stand by the family of its senior member when the family has been torn apart. But again, that's a Party affair!
The sorry story of Rahul Mahajan is more of a human interest one than anything of National interest. There could be other important events happening around that may have a deeper impact on the lives of a typical reader. Let the media have its heart in place and think with its head.