The world really is a global village. This, I realised, when I received this email from a reader of my blog in Dubai. She writes:
Yesterday, I was listening to one of the radio stations here (89.1 FM) and the RJ was reading out (very badly) a movie review for Dor. As he was reading it out I realized that he was reading out your review, word for word.
"Since when did widows in Rajasthan wear dark blue clothes? I always thought they wore white! In fact, the clothes Meera wears after Shanker's death resemble a burqa more than anything else... and this to me seemed odd throughout the film.
I also felt that for the first time Nagesh Kukunoor has made a film which got caught up in exotic foreigner-friendly locations. That the backdrops got more importance than the struggle of the characters themselves.
And honestly, I wish he would at best make a cameo appearance and not actually play a part in every film. At the very least, he needs to lose that Hyderabad-meets-Hudson accent!"
This whole bit was said word for word. He did not acknowledge the fact that it has been taken from your blog or anything.
I felt this was a bit unfair, so I sent the radio station an sms saying that the review was copied from the blog Youthcurry and that I would let the author know about it.
The RJ calls me back in 10 mins saying " you wanted to talk to the author right? I'm the author. Go ahead. What do you wanna say?"
I told him that the review was taken from Youthcurry by this person who is the editor of JAM and he asked "Do you have any idea where Jam gets their reviews from? Do you know who writes it? We are part of the JAM *something* (I forget what) panel .
For a second I faltered thinking that maybe you had one of your reporters write it and the RJ might be of them. Then I remembered how he was reading the review. He could hardly pronounce the words correctly, and was obviously reading the review out loud for the first time.
So I called his bluff, and he then started talking about how radio is a free medium and that he can pick up anything from anywhere and say whatever. And that he writes for magazines as well and he never copies, but if a few words happens to come in here and there, that is not a big deal.
He tried to put it in my head several several times that it's not copying. I guess it may not be. But I still feel you should've been acknowledged or at least he could've said something like " According to this review from JAM mag..."
And the fact remains that he tried to pass off as the author. Which is a LIE.
Also, when I asked him for his name ( cos I really didn't know who he was, all the RJ's of this station sound the same and I had just turned on the radio at the time, I was driving home) he refused to say. Which I found to be an extremely immature and cowardly thing to do. His name is Harsha, if at all you're interested.
If what's happening is alright by you, ok then. If not, please do let the station know.
XXXX (name withheld)
Well, it's not OK and I am letting the station know by printing this letter on my blog. It would be funny if it were not so... unethical. To use the word 'I' and rattle off someone else's thoughts and views shows such a paucity of brainjuice that I have nothing more to say.
Google scripting and google journalism is NOT ok. Not for a college project, not in print, not on radio.
Will 89.1 FM care to lay down this law for its RJs?
