17 October 2003 15:47
No news better than Russian TV`s "good news"
There is no truth. There is news.
 News in Russia is coming to an end. First and foremost -television news. Information programmes have been completely taken over by a stream of continuous and unbroken "good news" under the pretext of combating "bad news". I do not know which of the two is the more repulsive. I only know that both are equally dangerous: they feed people with notions about a world that does not exist. But then people go out and act in the real world on the basis of these false "positive" or "negative" ideas. At the same time, there has been absolutely no decrease in the amount of "bad news" on television. It is simply that all of the country's main television channels have now acquired specialized criminal news programmes and it is these specialized programmes which deal with tales of house-breaking, rape and murder. Yet the news itself paints a picture of peace and quiet and God's plenty. The only "bad news" to appear consists of reports about the latest strategic bomber to explode in midair or the latest submarine to go down. And even this only happens because the active and interested part of the population now has such extensive access to information that it is simply impossible to conceal news of this kind. Anodyne news on award-winning channel The results of the TEFI awards (Russian equivalent of the Emmys) in the nomination for the "best television programme" offer a reliable indication of the crisis in television news. For a couple of years there has simply been nothing worthy of an award because there is no one single news programme on any of the country's main television channels that carries any real news. This year out of desperation the award went to the Kultura Channel's "Novosti" programme. Kultura is quite a worthy channel. But its news is an outright scandal. The desire of the presenters and television journalists to express themselves in an as "contrived" and ingenious fashion as possible leads time and again to cases of outright stupidity. With the latter in mind I recall a magical phrase uttered by one of the television journalists working for the "award-winning" programme: "A theatre with the typically St Petersburg name of Monplaisir. And I am not talking about the constant 'new premieres'". As though there can be such a thing as "old" premieres. Apart from basic problems with the Russian language and meaning, these most cultural of news items are dominated by a stream of obsequious rose-coloured drivel. There is not one single element of conflict or disagreement about cultural monuments and cultural institutions and not one single negative television review, although there are times when attempts to praise the latest cultural undertaking are heavily reminiscent of a method tested by one of the characters in a story by Arkadiy Averchenko, a great satirist at the start of the last century. His hero critic was dispatched to a certain art exhibition with instructions from his bosses to make sure that he praised what he had seen. What the critic actually saw at the exhibition openly horrified him. But if he disobeyed orders he would lose his job and the source of his daily bread. So the sharp-witted critic found a way out of his dilemma. His review-cum-eulogy began in approximately the following fashion: "The gallery's premises are very well heated". Putin and dolphins the news bulletin from one of the main state nationwide channels actually consisted of just two items. The first item dealt with the results of Putin's talks with Bush at Camp David. There is nothing objectionable about the subject in itself, although the lengthy on-location report does not provide any normal person with an insight into what the presidents discussed and what was agreed upon. The entire contents of the report amounted to nothing more than that well-known Soviet formulation - "the discussion covered a broad range of issues of mutual interest". The second news item covered the birth of a dolphin pup to Afalina Sonya in the dolphinarium of one of Russia's resort towns. We are told that Sonya will not let people near the young one. We learn that the father dolphin has been sent away on tour so that he will not interfere in the young one's upbringing. We discover that the happy mother cannot yet perform and that consequently her colleagues from the dolphin troupe are covering for her. This was followed by sport and the weather forecast. There was no economics - for example, whether or not Roman Abramovich will sell Oleg Deripaska his share of the Russian Aluminium company - no international news and no culture. Failure to inform Putin and Bush are quite likeable men. What is more, when they came out to meet journalists they were not wearing ties - which greatly enhanced their image. I hope the politicians will forgive me, but Afalina Sonya and her young dolphin are even more appealing. They are so sweet. But it has nothing to do with the news. I would be happy to hear about dolphin births on a programme about animals. And of course there is nothing wrong with listening to quotes from Putin's and Bush's outdoor news conference. But they were doing nothing more than uttering stock phrases. If journalists are present at such events I would like to hear the details of the talks from them. And, besides, a meeting between two presidents and the birth of one dolphin pup scarcely represent an exhaustive summary of world events. We are sick of "bad news". And the same applies to "good news". The news should contain information. And if for some reason it is not possible to inform people, let the television stop showing news altogether. Let us take pleasure in watching the happy female dolphin who has become a mother.
[Izvestiya] |
RUSSIA IN FACTS
