Aaj Tak, the channel which does not ever mind stooping to cleavage shows and sex, with its whole-hearted endorsement of Rakhi Sawant, took on a very strange and hypocritical role yesterday because of Richard Gere deciding to chew off Shilpa Shetty's ear. Aaj Tak began playing the country's middle-class moral guardian - 'Sex is BAD' or rather 'Public Displays of Affection' are bad. I mean reams of newsprint have been spent on this, but I don't get why middle-class India is in denial about the fact that their children are copulating like f***ing rabbits.
I can write an impassioned post over here, questioning why fundamentalist and sexually frustrated assholes in every religion protest against anything from a kiss to sex to god knows what else. Part of the reason is the media explosion and given that short of a political assassination or a star-studded wedding, most news days are fairly slow, you know that even a ten-person protest with little cardboard signs with awful grammar and English will get attention, unless you're doing it at Jantar Mantar.
Then there is the case of the rabble-rousing elements of some 'Hindu' yada yada who bashed up the Star News office. I work in an organisation whose Bombay office was also smashed up by goons a couple of years ago because we made the cardinal sin of inviting Mani Aiyar (which is a cardinal sin, but anyway) who was on Savarkar-denial mode that time. The reason Star got into so much trouble was because of this story. I don't know what to say, these people are all goons looking for a cause whose morality is offended because of some weird slight. But, these things will not change overnight and I end up talking to people who have mindsets stuck in the 1950's or even worse the nineteenth century. And those won't change overnight, but hopefully, our demographics and rapid urbanisation will change the situation.
Anyway, Aakar Patel is from all indications taking over as the editor of the new India Today Group newspaper, fairly competent guy, but I still don't know the viability of a new newspaper in Delhi. Also, DNA has put their planned Delhi-edition on ice.
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2 comments:
Do you have any dope about the new Editor who has joined The New Indian Express in Madras ?
Agree wholeheartedly. At some point even the media will have to get embarrassed at their own hypocrisy.
Well, maybe not.
On another matter entirely, please please source more gossip on the magazine scene in Bombay. The blogosphere is currently empty.
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