Dear Mr.Newswala...

Dear Mr. Newswala,

This is in fond memory of Responsible and Objective Journalism in our country. I condemn this unfortunate loss, which came to light recently during the multiple instances of your reactive and provocative "Reporting" of India's unlikely and disappointing early exit from the T20 World Cup.

Reporting, as suggested by a very reliable dictionary, seems to mean ' to give or render a formal account or statement of something', which, i regret to say, does not appear to match your idea of the same. Coming from the media of the biggest democracy of the world, NEWS should be NEWS and not impulsive ramblings of an opinionated mind. To go from Reporting the news of India's loss to pointing fingers at the players, the media has gone a long way, regrettably, in the wrong direction.

For a nation, where cricket is a religion, a loss in a World Cup hurts every individual on the street. The fact that the Indian cricket team did not live upto our expectations disappointed a billion Indians fans around the globe but to pounce upon this opportunity to criticize the unbelievably-successful MS Dhoni, who has led our team to many a delighting victories in the so very recent past, is very disturbing and rather shameful. I call it shameful, sir, since, cricket players and legends alike from OTHER nations have led support to MS Dhoni and OUR team, while we have been busy pelting virtual stones at the same men, who have made us proud as a nation winning almost everything since September '07 , if my memory serves me right. To honor them in times of great victories and to withdraw all support, in fact, dispose them off as shameless, worthless & talentless cricketers, to quote your headlines sir, is utterly immature and disgustingly hypocritical. Headlines which URGE our champions to "learn" from Pakistan, the very team that they defeated last year and gave us a historical peak of joy makes us rather sad as passionate fans of cricket and staunch supporters of our team.

Emotional "Reporting", if i may call it that, has ironically become a trend with news channels today. The headlines we read sipping our morning cuppa tea does anything but make us proud of where we stand in our psychological and ethical development, as a nation. Life-taking-Riots in the name of religion, election campaigns based on promises of Mandirs and not reforms, are just a few of those shameful realities that further speak of us as an impulsive, unreasonable lot. And in times like these where you, the media should ideally be reforming the way India thinks (by throwing light on the grim reality behind the scenes), you often join the band wagon by taking sides.

Sir, I'm afraid i will have to say, we do NOT approve... Of a certain prince/anju-in-a-hole being the subject of 24*7 news coverage when countless others continue to cry in their dark dungeons, unheard. We do NOT approve.. of detailed coverage of imaginative scenarios of a nuclear war and what could be, instead of the so-much what is and needs to be known... of our national heroes being called names when we, the junta stand besides them... of bearded gentlemen, right out of bad acting schools, attempting to scare us out of our wits by their not-so-witty and singularly infamous on-air behavior.. of election campaigns and religious speeches occupying every news bulletin for days at length when the nation and the crisis it faces are certainly not at a standstill... of personal opinions and impulsive conclusions replacing NEWS in a nation that has witnessed opinions turn into bloodshed more often than we are proud of.

I certainly hope these words of a common man will make the voices of many more morning-couch-tea-sippers heard, who are exhausted of surfing channels to get a byte of the real NEWS and are pretty much done with getting fed with opinions and not facts.

Yours sincerely,
The Rebel