Debate on Topic Continuous Comprehensive Evaluation Has Really Changed Our Lives
If there was a prize for droll understatement in public relations, the man to beat right now would be New Delhi police spokesman Rajan Bhagat who, with 23 construction workers being rushed to hospital after a bridge collapsed at Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium early yesterday, had this to say:
“The pictures on TV make it look much worse than it is.”
The indefatigable Mr Bhagat might have graduated with flying colours from the school of “It’s not a turd it’s a chocolate éclair” media management, but nobody else is buying it.
There is a natural tendency in journalism, which reflects a broader human tendency, to dwell on negatives and expect the worst. The bleak coverage in the lead-up to the Sydney Olympics is a case in point. Everything from public transport planning and VIP gold seat ticketing to the proposed importation of American marching bands and the issuing of spots in the torch relay for members of the Olympic Family was the subject of relentlessly downbeat coverage, predicting the event would not only be a catastrophe but possibly an affront to our way of life.
The verdict? Best games ever.
The coverage in the lead-up to the Commonwealth Games in New Delhi is in a different category. It’s likely that things will not just be every bit as bad as has been reported, but possibly also worse.
On almost every measure, there are signs that the planning surrounding the Games has been found seriously wanting. Security has already been breached, prompting laughably dissembling explanations from the authorities as to how the shooting in broad daylight of two Taiwanese holiday-makers, smack bang in the middle of Delhi’s busiest tourist precinct, wasn’t technically an act of terror.
And whatever Mr Bhagat had to say about it, the collapse of a 50m pedestrian bridge onto a crane and a couple of dozen labourers became a valid metaphor for the broader infrastructure problems surrounding the Games, as evidenced earlier by the Kiwis’ declaration that the athletes village
“The pictures on TV make it look much worse than it is.”
The indefatigable Mr Bhagat might have graduated with flying colours from the school of “It’s not a turd it’s a chocolate éclair” media management, but nobody else is buying it.
There is a natural tendency in journalism, which reflects a broader human tendency, to dwell on negatives and expect the worst. The bleak coverage in the lead-up to the Sydney Olympics is a case in point. Everything from public transport planning and VIP gold seat ticketing to the proposed importation of American marching bands and the issuing of spots in the torch relay for members of the Olympic Family was the subject of relentlessly downbeat coverage, predicting the event would not only be a catastrophe but possibly an affront to our way of life.
The verdict? Best games ever.
The coverage in the lead-up to the Commonwealth Games in New Delhi is in a different category. It’s likely that things will not just be every bit as bad as has been reported, but possibly also worse.
On almost every measure, there are signs that the planning surrounding the Games has been found seriously wanting. Security has already been breached, prompting laughably dissembling explanations from the authorities as to how the shooting in broad daylight of two Taiwanese holiday-makers, smack bang in the middle of Delhi’s busiest tourist precinct, wasn’t technically an act of terror.
And whatever Mr Bhagat had to say about it, the collapse of a 50m pedestrian bridge onto a crane and a couple of dozen labourers became a valid metaphor for the broader infrastructure problems surrounding the Games, as evidenced earlier by the Kiwis’ declaration that the athletes village