The Times of India should be no stranger to embarrassment...
...but this takes the cake. Hilarious, and depressing.
4 comments:
Conrad Barwa
said...
I saw this with my parents and we were all embarassed that these people represent out country in such spotlights. My mother made a somewhat uncharitable comment that the journo must have been related to somebody since she certainly didn't seem to have got the job on her skills. My own take is different, in that our journos for the most part *are* this bad so I have no problem in beleiving that this is the kind of journo the ToI churns out.
How retarded could she be, I mean, does she think all the other journos aren't proud of their country/leaders? We seem to be aping this "God Bless America" exceptionalist bullshit rather too well sometimes in our middle class discourse.
The Chinese correspondent by contrast was much more dignified, managed to ask TWO intelligent questions and gave back as good as he got from Obama as well. Just embarasses me even more.
I don't really have a high opinion of many Indian journalists, but I do agree with your mother, in that there are plenty of English-language journalists who I like to think would not have been overawed or been caught floundering around (e.g. Barkha Dutt, Karan Thapar, Rajdeep Sardesai, Shekhar Gupta, to name four -- whatever one may say about them, an utter lack of poise is generally not their owrst sin), I was so taken aback by the lack of prepossession, I couldn't help but wonder if this particular one had been chosen for her clipped accent rather than anything else. I will say that even by the standards of the contemporary media, the Times of India is easily the most frivolous of the major Indian English-language newspapers -- its re-invention of itself (post-1991) as a light, frothy, celeb-obsessed rag is quite remarkable (given its rather staid history)...this reporter reacted to Obama the way I might if Aishwariya Rai suddenly materialized in front of me.
LOL! Her accent wasn't that clipped either imo, more what Robert Fox would as a "Hinglish" one. I have met some journalists who are much better.
But this is style; if she had asked some smart questions that were actually related to the topic of this summit (what was the effin point in asking about terrorism in PAK at a g-20 summit that was pretty much about the global financial crisis - she could have reserved that question for the NATO summit a few days later which actually was about security - and what on earth did she expect Obama to say except mumble some platittudes?! Honestly!) instead of blathering on like she did. The other correspondents - and the press pack at these events are like jackals when they sense a weakness, weren't impressed from the murmurs/comments in the background.
I don't mind her making a fool of herself or the ToI - I just wish she wouldn't make the country look foolish as well simulataneously!
4 comments:
I saw this with my parents and we were all embarassed that these people represent out country in such spotlights. My mother made a somewhat uncharitable comment that the journo must have been related to somebody since she certainly didn't seem to have got the job on her skills. My own take is different, in that our journos for the most part *are* this bad so I have no problem in beleiving that this is the kind of journo the ToI churns out.
How retarded could she be, I mean, does she think all the other journos aren't proud of their country/leaders? We seem to be aping this "God Bless America" exceptionalist bullshit rather too well sometimes in our middle class discourse.
The Chinese correspondent by contrast was much more dignified, managed to ask TWO intelligent questions and gave back as good as he got from Obama as well. Just embarasses me even more.
I don't really have a high opinion of many Indian journalists, but I do agree with your mother, in that there are plenty of English-language journalists who I like to think would not have been overawed or been caught floundering around (e.g. Barkha Dutt, Karan Thapar, Rajdeep Sardesai, Shekhar Gupta, to name four -- whatever one may say about them, an utter lack of poise is generally not their owrst sin), I was so taken aback by the lack of prepossession, I couldn't help but wonder if this particular one had been chosen for her clipped accent rather than anything else. I will say that even by the standards of the contemporary media, the Times of India is easily the most frivolous of the major Indian English-language newspapers -- its re-invention of itself (post-1991) as a light, frothy, celeb-obsessed rag is quite remarkable (given its rather staid history)...this reporter reacted to Obama the way I might if Aishwariya Rai suddenly materialized in front of me.
LOL! Her accent wasn't that clipped either imo, more what Robert Fox would as a "Hinglish" one. I have met some journalists who are much better.
But this is style; if she had asked some smart questions that were actually related to the topic of this summit (what was the effin point in asking about terrorism in PAK at a g-20 summit that was pretty much about the global financial crisis - she could have reserved that question for the NATO summit a few days later which actually was about security - and what on earth did she expect Obama to say except mumble some platittudes?! Honestly!) instead of blathering on like she did. The other correspondents - and the press pack at these events are like jackals when they sense a weakness, weren't impressed from the murmurs/comments in the background.
I don't mind her making a fool of herself or the ToI - I just wish she wouldn't make the country look foolish as well simulataneously!
LOL.
She came out as a fan. She kind of regained some ground "we are proud of him" but initial hesitation was embarrasing.
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