Blog Blah, Himani Dalmia and a foot in the Mouth!

Blog Blah, Himani Dalmia and a foot in the Mouth!

The Devil’s Advocate in the Times of India, I thought, brought out some very good and thought provoking opinions. But, those days, it seems would soon be a thing of the past. Also journalists are said to be objective. At least we were told so when we trained at the IIMC, New Delhi. The credibility of the media is judged based on the ethics of its journalists or writers. “Blog Blah” by Himani Dalmia was a piece that can go down in the history of the media as one piece of myopic bias.

Himani might not have come across many good blogs. Just as some newspapers carry many worthless articles at times, the Blogosphere is also one media which has some prolific writers and some very mediocre writers as well. Not many people would disagree that some Blogs are indeed self indulgent, petty or maybe biased. But aren’t some newspapers and some TV news channels the same as that? Not all articles are worthwhile nor all actions of newspapers are ethical. Some are downright despicable. Myopic views only make us see only the bad aspects of a particular thing. If that piece of hers was meant to provoke people into commenting on blogs then perhaps it has just achieved that. But to say that all blogs are useless, stupid, mediocre musings of nerds and social misfits then, Your Highness, I would beg to differ!

I would agree with Himani and say that all blogs are stupid and mediocre outpourings if she can convince me that all journalists are winners of the Pulitzer or Nobel Prize for literature. And that I believe every person in his right frame of mind would not be too foolhardy to bet on it. At times newspapers and even the electronic media too cover or publish very mediocre things and claim them as scoops.

Perhaps the ills affecting the media in our country might have something to do with people who are just a somebody ‘close to somebody in the media and by virtue of which, could get a toehold in the industry’ had got his or her byline in the Op-Ed page of a respectable Newspaper.

Or was it meant to show that the corporate houses advertising in the newspaper are just fools to have generated so much revenue for a podium that could allow such an opinion to be voiced.