Hoping to get some "entertainment" from the idiot box on a Friday evening, I was channel browsing , and CNN-IBN and the other English news channels did not disappoint. The "lead story" on CNN - IBN was how Mumbaikars stood up to Shiv Sena threat and how "most multiplexes" in Mumbai ran a "full house" of "My Name is Khan"
I have in some of my previous posts written about Shiv Sena ( Refer the first half of the title for this post), but today the more entertaining ones were the sir and ma'm of the show.. I mean the hosts of India @ 9 or whatever..
After the clippings of the "packed houses" ( means may be 20-30 people in front of a theatre ) and interviews with some can't-figure-out-if-its-a-he-or-she folks saying "we won't let ourselves to be bullied" , there was finally the interview with the ShivSena spokesperson, and here is how it went more or less ( SS for Shivsena fella, CNNS for the CNN Sir and CNNM for the ma'm, and my comments are in brackets)
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CNNS: So SS, tell honestly, do you accept defeat
SS: (After some philosophical discourse on how media is supposed to be the fourth pillar -or did he mean fifth column - of the society got into some statistics) - There are 263 theatres in Maharahstra and only 13 (or was it 30?) screened MNIK . In Mumbai only 4 theatres screened it . How do you still say that it was screened in "most theatres" ?
CNNM : (looking at what is perhaps a paper - or was she checking her face in the mirror once more - on the table) But we have here reports that the movie was running to packed houses
( ma'm you did not reply to SS' question or statistics...)
SS: Where are you getting statistics that even the few theaters than ran were packed ? I have seen clippings showing many empty seats
CNNS : Are you saying that nobody in Mumbai has seen the film in Mumbai today ? ( lol, even an LKG kid would understand the difference between what SS said and what you attribute to him)
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What I thought would be a cornering of the SS guy, in just a couple of minutes turned to be a comedy show by the anchors ! I continued my browsing and somewhere I found the other "major news" for the day (I think it was CNN-IBN again). That of how Pramod Muthalik (lets call him PM) got a "taste of his own medicine" when he got his face blackened by "Youth Congress activists" .
Yet again, PM belongs to the first half of the title, but today I am more exited about the second halfers . So how come, when Youth Congress retorts to violence , even if its against another violence, it becomes "getting back", but if only it were a "right-wing" reaction to say a Christian aggression, or an Islamic invasion it becomes "two wrongs don't make a right" . How come when a disputed so-called mosque is pulled down, it becomes "two wrongs don't make a right"? Why don''t the same media call it "Islam getting a taste of its own medicine" ? ( In fact 1 in a ten-thousand part may be) . When Muthalik is attacked "he deserves it" , may be he does, so then what about when CNN-IBN office itself is attacked ?
Going back to Mumbai, some news anchor was seen asking "Who gives Shiv Sena the right to decide what Mumbaikars should do?" . Mam, who give "English News Channels" the right to decide who is communal and who is not, to label some one a criminal even before a court sentences him guilty, to distort facts as it likes and then to remain silent without even an apology when proved wrong ? Who gives you the right to keep bombarding us with distortions and biased reports ?
Though done without a choice, the 2 rupee per month ( well 100 rupee for some 50 channels) that I am paying is really worth it when it comes to " Comedy News Network - India Based N..... " any suggestions for the last N ?
