They started out as people like us. The English-speaking denizens of the news dissemination business on TV. But which one of us would grant them, without trepidition, entry into our homes now? Everyone of them now comes across as insufferable smirks who, forgot examining all sides of any given issue, manage the stupendous task of maximizing both intellectual laziness and vigorous bigotry on every single issue, every single time, financed and supported not just by a philistine phalanx of imagination-challenged, ethically-bankrupt brand managers , media planners and buyers but also increasingly by political and corporate slush funds.
I believe there is an opportunity for people like us to challenge this status quo. We could create a Citizen"s News channel. Financed by a co-operative of people like us with nobody owning more than 5%. The channel could break out of the traditional models of news gathering eschewing expensive OB vans and roving reporters and invest in advanced systems of crowd sourcing, advanced versions of the pioneering i-Report model on CNN and concentrate on honest, intelligent, in-depth analysis. We could side step the stranglehold of traditional cable distribution and build a web-based model which in fact allows us to create concurrent print, radio and TV properties. The web channel will be as ubiquitous as cable, especially among the educated young, within the next five years. I believe this business model can be supported entirely through subscriptions and no-strings-attached endowments.
I am willing to put in a million rupees of my own as seed money to put more flesh on this idea and start building the platformr provided I can find 20 more of us willing to do so. Give me a shout if this has you thinking.
