The world over, people from all walks of life sat watching the news from Mumbai last week as terrorists struck high-profile hotels. Joining the millions were the 2,00,000 plus Indians who have made the Bay Area, California, their home thanks to tech jobs at Silicon Valley. The tension and silence at the home where some of us had gathered was so palpable you could have heard a pin drop. Day 1 of the siege saw several techie families residents stayed awake through the night. Interestingly, we were not tuned in to CNN, but media outlets back home.
As friends called near and dear ones in Mumbai, I was impressed by the patronage the Indian media received from techies and their families in Silicon Valley. Terms like “India’s 9/11” and “the worst attack ever” echoed in our conversation as some folks cued in to Zee News and NDTV broadcasts. Netizens swarmed to news websites of The Hindu, The Express Group, Hindustan Times, Times of India and Deccan Herald (depending on what region you hailed from! Interesting!) But the grading of the reportage, American media included, was a miserable F.
Before I go further, let me tell you, I for one was l-o-s-t watching the American media reports. The videos on American media were frustratingly repetitive with new information release virtually crawling. The US media may have been slow and later partisan, but the people on the streets were not. I was touched by the responses I got from people here. As for the Indian media, Sili Valley families with friends and relatives in the area were upset with the emotional rhetoric in the reportage, and argued it could have been toned down to infuse a sense of calm in to an already traumatic situation.
Other techie families watching India’s English language news channels were baffled by the fact that every reporter on the field attributed his or her information to “credible sources” who minutes later wove a different angle to the tragedy. It was a local journalist who informed me that as the story broke, a certain TV channel had TV cameras zoomed in on police officers and soldiers at their stake points outside the hotels where gunmen were holding hostages. Apparently, at that stage, the hotels still had TV reception, putting the uniformed personnel plum in harm’s way. (Question: What were the producers thinking streaming such live images that put people’s lives at risk?) As for the US media, much of the coverage improved only when it found out about the Americans and Britishers who had been taken hostage. As we drank one cup of chai after another to ease the tension many of us debated the stand the western media often takes. Why, why, why…ranted my techie friends? Why is it that, most often, to the American media it is all about American lives in peril? Do other lives (in this case especially Indian lives) not matter? In the end, Silicon Valley concurred that we were exposed to either hyperbole on Indian news sites or a one-sided story about ‘American lives in peril’. Whatever happened to accuracy, fairness, and fortitude in the light of adversity they asked. Are the days of credible, restrained reporting truly over? That would be a huge blow, say techie friends, given that most Sili Valley families still use their favourite Indian news channel/website as their window to the world!
Farwa Imam Ali is a journalist based in the US. silicontales@gmail.com
