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"News is what we give them and we give them what they want"

One of my favorite pastimes when I was in India was to watch both Sun News and Jaya News. If you haven't done that before, you ought to. These people are fantastic. They can twist the basic of facts, give it a face, eyes, nose and make a monstrer off it. Take for instance, Kannagi statue or Kushboo's comments. Who the frigging hell cares one way or the other? Sun TV wanted you to believe that it was an attack on Tamil and Tamil women's chastity and bingo! most people did. Unless ofcourse you watched Jaya news. Look at the deplorable state of media. Everyday we see people being manipulated to believe their version of the truth. And it is not a phenemenon unique to the Indian media. Fox News has been accused of distorting news time and again. Also remember the 'Freedom fries' and 'If you are not with us, you are against us' but was that Fox News or was that Bush.

Jon Stewart's 'The Daily show' and Stephen Colbert's 'The Colbert Report' are beacons of hope. No!!! they are not sworn to broadcast the truth and nothing but the truth. They are programs on Comedy Central. What these TV shows inspire is a scant disregard for anything and everything. The whole idea behind these mockeries is to unsanctify the sacred. It is mostly politicians who bear the brunt of their attacks (Governor Bush vs. President Bush was a tickler) but the media hasn't exactly been spared either. Take this for instance or this. You can view many of their videos on their website. (I loved the recent one on the media coverage of Karr's extradition - 'Karr on a plane'. Watch it!)

I would be kidding myself (and bullshitting all of you) if I said that Comedy Central has given me a new perspective on global politics. Thats not what they are for (as Jon pointed out in Crossfire). By showing that these 'God-like' beings; politicians, actors, business tycoons, news barons and other celebrities, are mere mortals they pull the rose-tinted glasses from our eyes. They edify the importance of making our own informed opinions and to stop parroting the "truths" as shown on TV. There is a similar Australian program called 'Chasers War on everything'. Indian counterparts 'Movers and Shakers' and 'Naiyandi Durbar' were great too.

But the point is... Good or not... we need them!