We have a tabloid newspaper in our town, which is distributed free to all subscribers of the parent newspaper. This tabloid is hardly read by anybody pressed for time, but apparently has become popular with a section of the population for some dubious reasons.
This morning the front page screams about a sensational story of how a “Victim” turned the tables on the local traffic police.
The story removed of all sensationalism is simple. A lady was shopping in a Mall and her husband came to pick her up in a car. She was delayed and he parked the car in front of the Mall on the footpath. When the security guard of the mall requested him to remove the car from the footpath, the owner refused to. A traffic policeman on duty on the opposite side of the road was called to settle the issue and the driver still refused to budge and while this argument was going on the lady came out of the Mall and sat in the car and started to record the discussions and also filmed whatever was going on.
The police summoned a tow truck to tow the car away but the lady refused to alight from the car and kept shouting that she was nauseous. At no point did she vomit though!
The reporter has presented the story in such a way that the starting point of the whole issue, the car being parked on a foot path, if front of a shopping mall has not been highlighted but the police force has been made to look as though they are villains.
There are many such incidents taking place in our town because, people do not observe traffic rules and hope to get away with uncivil behavior. The press, instead of highlighting the offences seems to be encouraging such criminal behavior and showing the police up in poor light.
I do not think that this is good journalism. Do you?