PROLOGUE : CNN-IBN News anchor Amrita Tripathi has described the happenings of news room in her novel Broken News. Here are excerpts:
Lives are critical to a bulletin. Some people are good at them, others not so much, but they really make or break you. It’s where people get to see you interacting with real people. It’s the unscripted you — though of course you often tend to think of the clever questions beforehand. That’s critical though, because as news develops, if you’re caught on the back foot, you can sound like a total ass-wipe. Many of my colleagues falling into the airhead trap, right in front of me — and the entire country, actually!
Lives are critical to a bulletin. Some people are good at them, others not so much, but they really make or break you. It’s where people get to see you interacting with real people. It’s the unscripted you — though of course you often tend to think of the clever questions beforehand. That’s critical though, because as news develops, if you’re caught on the back foot, you can sound like a total ass-wipe. Many of my colleagues falling into the airhead trap, right in front of me — and the entire country, actually!
