Why is the Jessica Lal case so Important to Media?

A woman (Jessica Lal) murdered a few years back gets around 1 hour daily on so called National News Channels.

Three woman murdered (Dalit killing in Maharashtra) a month back was first ignored, then forced to report and then sidelined.

In normal course, the three dalit woman murdered should get precedence but our channels find Jessica Lal case more interesting.

Any idea why?

Prime time of most national news channels (better call them metro channels) in India these days are reserved for Jessica Lal and Ram Jethmalani. Much of the time is spend on discussing what Ram Jethmalani should have said, should not have said and finally what he will say.

The net result - all people take a high moral ground and attack Ram Jethmalani. Then we have a set of news anchors who are more aware about the proceedings than the judges and lawyers. Most of the time viewers are left guessing what these people are discussing.

I don’t know if anybody is keeping track of the number of women murdered in India on a day or a week.

Now four Dalits – a woman, her two sons and a daughter – were killed on September 30 in Maharashtra. Most of the news channels in India ignored the killings until the protest reached Mumbai.

Now, when there is a protest in Mumbai our metro-channels (National News Channels) cannot ignore it. So they were forced to report this story.

All these channels survive on advertisements. These metro channels believe ‘Jessica Lal murder’ has more chances of attracting metro viewers than the murder of a poor woman in rural India. Corporate companies won’t like to advertise for rural news unless it is weird or has some sexual connotation.

But any metro masala will have enough viewers and advertisers and enough moola.