I used to think that Times of India has long since touched the bottom of journalism. Last Sunday's newspaper seemed to say otherwise. Infact, they had reached the bottom and not satisfied, they must have started digging to reach new lows. There were four stories(and an ad) in the front page of Bangalore edition and here are three of them:
"Bangalore boy wins world Billiards championship". Now, why should this be primary front page news?
"A horse dies in race-course from some disease"!!!! I am not kidding, this was the report on the top right section of front page. I am sure even Vijay Mallya's news paper(Asian Age) would not report such things in the front page. What would be their next one? Prasad Biddapa caught cold and passed on the infection to Ritu Beri? I would not be surprised anymore.
"The times of India group signs an MoU with BBC to explore possibilities of bringing in new magazines in India"! This was an advertisement in the guise of news. It is not the first time that these guys have been doing it. Remember how they shamelessly promoted their search engine and sms service as news in the front page? Sad part is that we pay for it. And the Sunday edition costs as much as Rs. 4-50.
But one thing I would not mind is the notorious Dubyaman being continued in ToI. For the simple reason that the hate mails that it receives are getting fabulously innovative and are fun to read. Who cares about that stupid comic anyway.
What is even sad is that most of us in the city are stuck to ToI as only readable newspaper. Alternatives - The Hindu is not really a Bangalore newspaper and anyone from the city would not care to read that. Deccan Herald is a decent newspaper but it feels like you are reading a newspaper from the 60s - you don't get to know lot of happening things in the city if you are reading it. Indian Express and Asian Age? What are they anyway? The fact is that ToI is the only newspaper that kept up with times, and as they became popular for that reason, they have been misusing their popularity. All that we can do now is to pray for another competent newspaper to come here. Statesmen/Telegraph?
