Anyone who participates in a show like [tag]Big Brother[/tag] or [tag]Survivor[/tag] knows that it is not a civilized tea party. It is visceral, viscious and violent (emotionally). The show is about being ‘ugly’ and letting it all hang out. Can you imagine how boring it would be if 13 people – whom you don’t know and couldn’t care a f*** about, spent 3 months being nice to each other?

So, why the furore about perceived racism towards [tag]Shilpa Shetty[/tag]. What do you expect on a show like that? I would think that the purpose of putting her in the house was to get that kind of a reaction. And, i am sure that, protests not withstanding, the ratings have picked up. Which I guess, is the rationaleof the show.

I am actually amused by a lot of the outrage that the show is generating in India. Let’s say that on a similar show in India, had a celebrity with a pronounced tamil accent (madrasi accent to be precise) – do you think that team mates will not make fun of the madrasi’s accent or call them madrasi. So why is there wall to wall coverage and acres of rainforest destroyed for someone calling Shilpa an Indian and making fun of her accent. Is there no other news in the country.

Today NDTV’s main story was about this issue. Suddenly the news anchor at the studio cut to Priyaranjan Das Munshi’s press conference. The I & B minister covered 3 points a) was the ‘banning’ of AXN b) was the Gandhian ‘forgivenss’ that was granted to CNN-IBN & Sahara News over the pole dancing video and c) was a ‘private citizen’ entered into contract with ‘private company’ and she should depose at the Indian High Commission at the earliest’ comment on the actor.

NDTV – which went hammer and tongs at the broadcast bill on the grounds that it curtailed freedom of expression, ignored the first two statements (the minister wants to ban a channel and a news channel does not even comment on it – what kind of idiots do they get in the editorial team) and jumped straight to the third.

Creating a controversy out of nothing may be a good tactic in attracting short term TVR’s or minor spikes in circulation. I am not sure that it is a good long term strategy. Utlimately in a world where most news is free, am I – the consumer – really going to pay money to buy news that is not really credible? Also read Great Bong’s piece on the same -I can actually visualize such a report on the channels.