The Hindu Business Line : <I>Anchors' failings </I>

Perhaps no other country comes anywhere near India in having so many TV channels for news and commentaries and in so many languages. Allowing for inevitable variations in production values, techniques and facilities, they all take themselves seriously and go about their tasks with gusto. In fact, the Hindi, Bengali and Tamil channels (the three Indian languages with which I am familiar) are also giving a good account of themselves. By and large, the Government-run channels are expectedly more staid and restrained than the private ones.

Generally, the media professionals of the private English channels are of impressive calibre and display a kind of verve, vigour and vitality that make the shows lively and instructive. The anchors of these channels are becoming icons in their own right much like David Brinkly, Chet Huntley, Tom Brocaw, Peter Jennings, Walter Cronkite, Barbara Walters and others.

This has no doubt become possible because of the encouragement they receive from their employers who undoubtedly have the imagination and enterprise to give them a free hand and a prominent role as a way of nurturing talents. But there are two failings the anchors should get over. The first is the tendency to talk more than the participants in the programmes. A good anchor is one who talks the least and gets the best out of the interviewees by pointed, brief queries.

The more serious flaw is stirring up political hornets' nests rather than getting at the true significance of an issue or event. For instance, in the talk shows on the Supreme Court verdict on Sardar Sarover Dam, the anchors were keen to hold up Mr Narendra Modi as the victor to the chagrin of participants from other political parties, instead of getting at the facts regarding rehabilitation.

Otherwise, having watched TV programmes in many countries and as one interested in visual communication, I can say with pride that our TV programmes and their anchors are in some respects superior to their foreign counterparts.

B. S. RAGHAVAN