"Government spending and contracts today are black holes into which taxpayers’ money is shovelled with little or no outcome and accountability. This unaccountable spending is the breeding ground for corruption and nepotism. "Rajeev Chandrasekhar, Rajya Sabha MP, Hindustan Times, 10 December, 2010
It must be my lucky week. We've had both newspapers delivered three times this week which has meant I could put the Times of India (TI) straight in the rubbish. The TI is the print equivalent of the old Bollywood movie: something in it for everyone, and often all on the same page. Both the HT and TI have horrible 'social scene' sections with large colour pictures of Indian celebrities and American starlets in varying degrees of undress. One page of this section has the cultural offerings of the city for the day so I do sometimes find myself scanning swiftly through the rubbish to find the exhibition or concert announcements before marching that section smartly to the bin.
For fun this week I decided to take a copy of the front section of each newspaper and do a systematic analysis of the contents. It wasn't a pleasant experience and probably added to my growing anger about some of what we observe here. :)
TI is shameless in exploiting every gruesome story by writing about it three times if they are short of copy. There is a callous factual presentation that somehow doesn't recognize the humanity of victims. Emphasis is on the blow by blow details of the crime and little attention placed on rehabilitation of victims or redemption of situations. They seem short on editorial staff and layout people too as the typos and malapropisms are frequent and at times delightful, while several pages have articles that look like icicles trickling down the side of the page with just one or two words per line.
Front page on Wednesday had two fairly modest ads across the top under the Times banner and in the bottom right quarter. Two above the fold leads, and one under the fold, lead focused on Indian corruption,while the central lead was about a terrorist blast on the anniversary of the Ayodha mosque destruction. The Wikileaks founder arrest got a front page spot as did the Sarkozy team. (Monsieur S has had plenty of good press as has Carla who made the Indians' day by praying for a son on their visit south, but it is nothing like what Mr and Mrs. Obama received for weeks before and after their visit.) Corruptions stories continued from page 1 and new, are featured on p. 2 (2 items), p. 3 (2), p. 4 (3), p.6(1), p. 7 (1), p.9 (1), p 11 (2). From about p. 13 the newspaper gets quite legitimate and the back 2 pages of business and 4 of sport look reassuringly familiar. The Varanasi bomb story from p.1 generated almost a page of articles p. 16 with a gruesome photo of the one fatality - a little girl with the unusual name of Swastika (Wikipedia: The word swastika is derived from the Sanskrit word svastika, meaning any lucky or auspicious object, and in particular a mark made on persons and things to denote good luck). the report mentioned that poor little Swastika's body was to be taken for a post mortem. All seems totally inappropriate - photo, report, examination. The gruesome stories of the city: A young man persuaded his friend to join him in killing an annoying girlfried p.3; Petrol pump attendant beaten to death by irate customer after the attendant pumped in more petrol than asked for p. 4; School taxi driver beaten to death by another driver when his car dented by the taxi p.4; An angry railway passenger snatched a 4 year old off a seat he wanted and threw her out the train door near a station. She is in critical condition. p.9
On a lighter note there were government ads on p. 2 (Delhi International Arts Festival); p. 9 (to promote plastic recycling- another no frills notice that won't get much attention ); and p. 9 (display-cum sale of Kashmir products organized by Ministry of Textiles)p. 17 (half page ad to encourage tax paper returns from Income Tax Department) and p 27 (half page ad for Handicrafts Week again paid for by the Ministry of Textiles).
A total of 15 complete pages of the entire 28 pages were devoted to advertising.
The HT looks less tabloid-like. It has a separate htbusiness section (8 pages of which fully 5 are advertising). While the last 4 pages of the main section are devoted to sport. Friday's front page above the fold lead is corruption in politics. Climate change and ICC Cricket World Cup also make it above the fold. Under the fold the Indian ambassador's frisking got some coverage as well as China's approach to visas for Kashmiri residents and a piece on the increase in airfares.
In contrast to TI the HT does a better job pulling articles on one topic together. P. 2 is crime and the city. Manager's murder, gang rape investigation, Delhi women not safe, pickpockets, murder of a teenager, 27 yr old stabbed to death, truck hits senior, fines for using the bus lanes. However, there seem to be more items than can fit on that one page so there are more of these grim reports scattered through the following pages: teen burns cigarette vendor for failing to give him cigarettes on credit; traffic cop thrashed by speeding driver.
The front section of 24 pages had 11 entirely devoted to ads. 1 1/2 pages of those ads sponsored by government agencies, Ministry of Textiles biggest sponsor.
Conclusions of the scientific analysis: When possible avoid The Times of India.
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