The contrasts are too stark. You don’t know how to write about the volatile and tragic events in Jammu & Kashmir in the same sentence as Shilpa Shetty’s voluptuous and startling appearance on Big Boss. How to compare Akhil Kumar’s combative performance in the ring with Dr.Manmohan Singh’s tame speech at the Red Fort? How to watch Musharraf’s resignation and the cheerleaders at the first ODI in Sri Lanka within seconds of each other, without thinking that for television they have equal importance?

And what can you possibly say about the CNN-IBN cash-for-votes tape that hasn’t already been said? Perhaps, that from a viewer’s perspective, the entire tape should have been telecast at one go so we could judge for ourselves without expert commentary replete with so many qualifications, submissions and explanations. This was a TV telecast, not a court hearing: testimony from Amar Singh, Arun Jaitley and other eminent jurists should have been after, not during the tape’s telecast.

From J&K, we hear too many voices making too many contradictory statements with too much vehemence. Perhaps this reflects the prevailing confusion in the state. However, television has added to our sense of disorientation: because television provides a continuous jigsaw of visuals from Jammu, Srinagar, Delhi and Islamabad — and plunges the microphone into every willing open mouth that wants to speak (they all do) — you’re left with no clarity, only a jumbled film reel with garbled sounds. To this day, you don’t understand why this is happening with such alarming results.

... contd.