News Now Sucks

I'm sorely disappointed by the team over at Times Now. I mean, Arnab Goswami used to have it right. He'd read the news like it was, and the bar at the bottom was nice and sober.

Then my cable guy decides that I've had enough of Times Now and removes the channel for a couple of months.

Yesterday, I find it again. And what do I see? Times Now's main feature, Newshour, now looks like most post-10 pm shows on Aaj Tak - loud, opinionated, with gory music and special effects added to 'spice up the news' or whatever. The news bar at the bottom now occupies almost half the screen, with Arnab and his new apprentice reciting the news in time to the horror music playing in the background.

And what's with saying, "A look into the gruesome murder of Arushi - possibly a honor killing!" with so much relish in your voice? Firstly, their 14 year-old daughter's been murdered. As if that wasn't bad enough, you just want your little sound byte. Understand something: it's a murder investigation. Revealing details about it can hamper the investigation. Oh, right... That doesn't matter, just as long as you get your scoop. Still, can you stop sounding so happy that it happened?

And if it does get botched up because of your reports in the first place, you get another great story: "Police Botch Up Arushi Murder Investigation. This report, coming up in about three minutes." What is with that, anyway? You already said at the beginning of the show what you were going to talk about, what's with saying it again and again and again saying, "Coming up in a bit, but first..." or "That story in about four minutes from now..."

This is sad to see. Really. At least NDTV seems to be doing okay, though even Dr. Roy was floundering a while ago...




Oh, and Arnab's little apprentice, it's 'an honour killing', not 'a honor killing'.

And Arnab, stop calling it 'your news channel' on live national TV. It's not my TV channel, and it's not cute.