trying to be intel part II

Continuing with my list of questions that make you want to go UMM...

I was thinking more on the "freedom of expression" esp in the press part of the story. Reminded me of the time when the Gujarat riots were in the news, that photo of that man with his hands folded pleading for help... Do you remeber that? Let me see if I can find it online..here it is

And the caption said "A Muslim man stranded on the first floor of his house and surrounded by Hindu rioters begs to nearby policemen to rescue him in Ahmedabad on Friday"

My question is: What does one gain by emphasizing that he is a "MUSLIM" man surrounded by HINDU rioters? Why couldn't the newspaper just write "man surrounded by rioters begs to be rescued from own house..'??
Maybe, it was to make people more sympathetic to (aware of) how difficult the life of a minority religion person is. But was it worth taking the risk of igniting a counter riot from the Muslim side? When you know you have the power to affect people's emotions doesn't it make sense to withhold some information that you think will lead to unnecessary bllodshed? Or are journalists supposed to behave like rational robots programmed to "tell the truth whatever be the consequence"??

A few years ago while working in a daily newspaper I got a taste of what goes on before the pages hit the printing press. It's no news that most papers want sensational news - whenever there is a disaster it almost seems like the newspapers compete over who has the biggest "dead" figures as headlines. But what I found most disconcerting was the arguments over what the headline should be. The act of making a "juicy story" ended up trivializing really tragic events. I remember once there was a short report on a woman who was raped and killed in Daryaganj. And all teh editors kept debating about was what would have a "better" effect saying "80 year old raped" or "grandson rapes woman". I've never felt so much dislike for "news" as I did that day...

The 24 hour news channel trend makes the situation worse. I mean, it's not really their fault, planes don't crash into towers everyday and nor do earths quake killing thousands. So what do they do to keep themselves occupied - peep and pry into people's lives. Some underworld don is getting married so cover his maariage celebrations, who wears what carat diamonds and what color panties at the wedding, some woman kills herslef over "whatever-she -felt-like", don't let her parents moan in peace, talk about who she was dating, who she was fighting with... JEEEZZZZ
A friend I was speaking to right now informs me that they even showed snapshots of her house "the place the girl none of u know & don't care about killed herslef".
"WHy show her house? She didn't kill herself over bad architecture or leaky walls".. well said. But who is listening?