India political crisis and media

I have a feeling that the current political crisis in India over the Indo-US nuclear agreement wouldn't have been this grave if there weren't these many mediapersons hounding political leaders. The struggle for information -- craving for it by the deprived and pressure to give away or not to give away by those who have info -- is unprecedented. This struggle is not helping anyone in anyway.

I was watching some of media conferences on TV. Gosh! what all questions the reporters had. One of them was asking Sitaram Yechuri, "Can you give an assurance that your party will not withdraw support to the government." He then said, "The issue is not the government but the nuclear deal."

Another one was heard asking on another occasion, "Will the government fall?" The answer, "Wait and see."

For each vague answer of one politician, the media rushed to the opposite camp to get a reaction. Again a vague answer. Again rush back to the other camp to ask what they have to say about the new vague statement!

While the questions have been clear, not one of the answer was. With so much vagueness all around as to what the Left is going to do, it was only natural that journalists were spinning all sorts of theories. Coming to think of it, I wouldn't blame journalists!!!

But, media editors could have done one thing: they could have applied their discretion a lot more and got these statements of all and sundry through a good filter and treated them on merit. Why give so much publicity to such vague statements.