Media Culpa

The language that you use will more often than not show your stand. Especially when the issue at hand is a contentious one. Let's see what the media reported on Day One. A Bureau report on ZeeNews.com said 'Pesticides in Coke, Pepsi brands again: CSE'. [ Link] Does that mean that there were no pesticide residues in the soft drinks in the 2003-2006 period, irrespective of whether someone found these contaminants or not? The first sentence says: Centre for Science and Environment (CSE) on...

Here's a look at the front page of today's Times of India, Delhi edition. Today's lead has the same fault about inverted commas as it was with yesterday's anchor. Single quotes are used for quotations within quotations. Elsewhere, even if it is a phrase or just a word, double quotes are used. Incorrect use around artificial in the intro: Even as J&K governor S K Sinha instituted an inquiry on Thursday into the 'artificial' shivling scandal at the Amarnath shrine, TOI has obtained strong evidence...

Here's a look at the front page of today's Hindustan Times, Delhi edition. Today's lead (China quietly builds a barrage on Sutlej), like yesterday's, is more or less clean. The copy itself is fine, but the story has a major loophole — it does not have a source. That, any good reporter will tell you, is a cardinal sin. The story apparently is based on some satellite images, but nowhere in the copy are HT's readers told what is the source of these images. Officials of the ministry of external...

Here's a look at the front page of yesterday's Hindustan Times, Delhi edition. The lead (Delhi sees nuclear club entry by year-end) is clean. The header is better too. The headers for this developing story which appeared as "Nuke Bill passage on course" on June 28 and "Nuke deal faces first vote today" on June 27 would have been appropriate had HT been an American daily. Climbing down to the next story (More troops to plug border infiltration). It is quite clean too. But I have a problem with...

Here's a look at the front page of yesterday's Times of India, Delhi edition. It is a clean page. No, not spotless, but much cleaner than that of June 28. The lead (Road to chaos: Over 250 km to be dug up) has only one major bloomer: The city government clamps a ban on road digging from June 15 to September 15 as digging adds to muck on the roads and increases chances of sewer and drain blockades. A blockade is a barrier that stops people or vehicles from entering or leaving a place. A blockage...

Here’s a look at the front page of today’s Times of India, Delhi edition. Let’s start with the lead once again (We killed Rajiv, confesses LTTE). There's a bloomer in the first line itself: Fifteen years after a LTTE suicide bomber killed Rajiv Gandhi in Sriperumbudur, the Tamil rebel outfit on Tuesday admitted its responsibility for the crime and delivered a public apology. It should be an LTTE suicide bomber and not a. The second sentence of the intro reads: In an interview to a TV network on...

Here's a look at the front page of today's Hindustan Times, Delhi edition. Once again, we start with the lead (Nuke Bill passage on course). And once again, we find mistakes in the intro itself: The international relations committee of the US House of Representatives began considering a bill seeking an exemptions for India from the discriminatory nuclear regime that presently existing under US law. Early indications, based on votes on amendments to the bill, indicated that of the 45 committee...

If you have ever worked as a reporter, you would know that no two reporters can use the same language to describe the same set of events. Something like fingerprints, you know. But the Zee News and Times of India correspondents who filed the story on the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) seeking the Tamil Nadu Speaker's sanction to prosecute J Jayalalithaa have somehow managed to do the impossible. Here's the Zee News story proudly slugged "Bureau report": New Delhi, June 26: The CBI has...

Here's a look at the front page of today's Times of India, Delhi edition. Let's start with the lead (In Congress, a battle rages for quote crown): HRD minister Arjun Singh's suspected attempt to appropriate the political ownership of the move to introduce OBC quota in Central institutions has finally run into in-house resistance. Suspected attempt? Who is suspecting Arjun Singh of doing anything? The next para says: Social justice minister Meira Kumar has questioned the justification of the HRD...

One of the best ways to tighten a copy is to do away with redundant words. Many redundancies crop up in copies because of a reporter or a sub-editor's desire to add colour to a story. This Reuters creed provides a glaring example (Two former ministers arrested over Kashmir sex scandal; Reuters; June 20, 2006): An angry mob ransacked the house of a woman suspected of running the sex ring in Srinagar, the state's summer capital, soon after it broke in April. The woman and three others were...