Saturday, June 8, 2013

In Breaking News or Making news truth is conspicuous by its absence.

The world of reality television and 24X7 news throws up everyday new and newer news that is more macabre than earlier . Its called "Breaking News" in media parlance. I'd chanced upon it a few years ago when  a heavy bundle of 2 daily papers had crashed  on my bedroom-window (instead of falling on the verandah door, the usual target for the paper-boy) breaking it into pieces. The old dominance of print media has long been usurped by television news. And hence the print media too was reacting to this competition by printing double the number of pages with advertisements, gaudy pictures of Page3 people and supplements, literary or otherwise. When 50 pages of Indian newsprint are rolled up , they become as heavy as a window-crashing weapon. Anyway, I'm digressing.

The point I'm trying to make is that with such barrage of breaking new everywhere, Truth has got lost somewhere among innuendos, propaganda, megalomania & trivia.

Raj Kundra says that he has done nothing wrong although he didn't specify that he has not been betting. Although in one part of his press  statement that was released yesterday, Raj says that his team (Rajasthan Royals) has zero tolerance for betting, fixing and corruption. So , we can assume that Raj Kundra didn't bet .
Neeraj Kumar, the Delhi Police CP has again put his foot in the mouth when he announced in a presser that Raj Kundra had admitted to betting during his interrogation  although his admission is not admissible in the court since it wasn't made in front of a magistrate. But the Delhi police has got Umesh Goenka's (Umesh is an associate of Raj) admission documented in front of a magistrate that Umesh was placing bets for Raj and once even placed bets for his film actor wife, Shilpa.

Now who is telling the truth ?

Shilpa Shetty has been tweeting every hour since yesterday that "Truth shall prevail." That'd imply that the Delhi Police commissioner is not telling the truth. And the CP didn't conduct himself wisely when he stated that the police has not arrested Kundra for betting because their case revolved around spot-fixing.  Again , some 24 hours  later the CP  admitted that he didn't have evidence to arrest Kundra.

Then, what about Umesh's statement? Is that not an admissible evidence?  Did he or did he not mention Raj & Shilpa's names as regular punters ?

Where does the truth lie? In somebody's lips or in someone else's deep pockets?

I guess we'll have to wait for another breaking news .

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