Monday, August 25, 2008

Great Moments in Sports Commenatry II

While Doordarshan's coverage of the Olympic Games in Beijing has bordered on the rather wide line between ridiculous and abysmal, some of the foriegn feeds they have been running have mad commentators. This must the same block from who used this classic line.
"The Cuban has less chance now than a female groupie at an Elton John concert."
The line was used in the match between Somjit Jongjohar of Thailand and Andris Laffita Harnandez of Cuba for the gold medal in the Flyweight category. Both lines have been distinctly homophobic and politically incorrect, but hilarious.
Unlike DD's coverage. I wonder why the papers obsessing about their sometimes silly coverage from Beijing haven't climbed onto DD's horrible, horrible commentary and habit of cutting out at crucial moments - just look at the Men's Gold hockey match.
I understand DD News has to toe the government line and talk about how good everything is in this country and pretend everyone is on a dose of MDMA, but for crying out loud? If Doordarshan can mess up an event where it received decently good feeds from the host broadcaster, can you imagine what is going to happen when the much-ballyhooed Commonwealth Games hit Delhi in 2010 and DD is the host broadcaster?
Moving on and talking of the Commonwealth Games we come to that crackpot Dinesh Mohan's pet BRT project. The guy has using Sunita Narain as a proxy written to the Editor's Guild of India. Now this bunch of old and ineffectual people (and I'm calling a spade a spade) has claimed the media has been 'unfair' about the BRT. Evidently nobody has seen the horible botched crisis that is the BRT because they don't live anywhere near it and India International Centre isn't close by.
Trust me, I have nothing against public transport and I would love dearly for Delhi to get a proper transport system. The Metro system is rapidly picking up steam, so much so that travelling on the system has gone from being a pleasure to being worse than going by bus. But I still use and top up my Metro card, because the system works.
The BRT is a horribly executed project which was made worse in the monsoon thanks to the total lack of planning, even for drainage and I will still hold Dinesh Mohan and his team of asswipes from IIT-Delhi responsible for screwing up traffic patterns in South Delhi. Yes, bus travel has become easier, but the bus network isn't a viable method of travel just yet because there are far too few buses and for most people the commute is longer. There are also no 'Park and Ride' car-parks. Plan a system properly and it will succeed. The BRT is still a decent idea, and I do not believe people are flaying the idea but just the execution of the idea. And instead of attacking the media accept that there have been mistakes made and recover the project, because the media will keep flaying the project (and you can't blame them, because their readership hates the project - you write what your readers want, don't you?) unless you admit that you screwed up.
The Editors Guild is making the same mistake most reporters make, commenting on something without experiencing it, much like most reporters in Singur, but that is another post for another day. Anyway, sorry for the rant, and I'm travelling again tomorrow, so apologise in advance for the slow down in posts.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Dude..I am a bit sick of u dumping over the BRT project. That is why I am a bit sick of "you journalists" ..first you live in a state subsidised colony in press enclave( i presume..) which has been paid off by taxpayers, work in an office which has probably been given cheap land by state ...and you drive a car ...
So it is a bit rich for you to stop complaining of BRT,It is pple of your kind who are responsible for screwing up the traffic patterns in Delhi. Do some basic journalism and check on the principles of BRT -in Bogota and Curitiba. It is a big success there...it is crackpot execution that is responsible...if you don't like the brt, start using the bus, or move from Saket
If you have guts why don't you start attacking cheap targets and start talking about the Delhi Gurgaon Toll Road where a contract was given to someone with no experience...the JP group which in turn has given to someone (DS constructions..) which proceeded to deliver it badly constructed ..and around 30 people have died as there are no crossing...but no you dont have time to think of others dont you. There were big rumors of big moneys being exchanged all around. Write on it if you have the guts. And stop making personal attacks on Dinesh Mohan, he has more brains than you and your dump journo friends
Just another case of NIMBYism..(not in my back yard).....by the privileged elite.
A word of suggestion: stick to taking of sex lives and office politics in the two big delhi newspapers.And keep going on junkets, You dont know much about the rest..

Anonymous said...

What news of Echtee? You've been uncharacteristically silent about it considering there have been important changes there on which you have an 'inside track'!

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