For weeks on end now, Indian news channels have followed – or rather, hounded- the case of an unfortunate and untimely death of a movie star with the persistence of a bank exceutive trying to sell you a credit card and the sensitivity of a sledgehammer. Many articles have since cropped up on both sides of the table-debating, analysing and ultimately ruing at what has come to pass for “journalism” these days- and with news channels crossing every ethical limit possible, the reproach is somewhat understandable. The antics of the anchors on the primetime news vary from outrageous, absurd, scandalous, sleazy to downright unintentionally comic, but this is hardly surprising to anyone who has been following popular Indian news channels for a few years now. I have stopped watching primetime news altogether simply because I acknowledge that almost all of it is politically sponspored propaganda one way or the other aimed to distract people from asking real questions about real issues, with