Flash News

How do you get information immediately after the incident?

If I am reading news in google reader, and at the same time, if some new information comes, then that is flash news, and I will know it before many others. If we want to find even faster than that, goto any popular news website, and press refresh again and again. We will come to know the news even faster. If we watch the TV, then we can get it even faster. Right?

We will take an example of cricket. If Bangladesh and Ireland are playing Cricket match, I will not be very much interested in watching the match. So, I just use google reader to find out the result. If India and some other country are playing the match, then I would be more interested in knowing the result. So, I use www.cricbuzz.com. It refreshes the page and shows the latest score/result after every ball. If the match is even more exciting, like India and Pakistan in T20 world cup final, I cannot allow any delay. So, I watch DD which telecasts the match live. But, it has a delay of 2 seconds. I cannot even allow 2 seconds delay. So, I watch it in Star Sports. Joginder Singh bowls, and Misbah hits, and sreesanth catches the ball. India won the match. Can you leave immediately (without any delay even for a few seconds)? What if the ball is a no ball?

Almost the same situation came today. I wanted to know the result of UPA vote of confidence immediately without any delay. So, I went to cafetaria to watch the TV at 7.30. After the electronic voting, Times Now displayed that UPA won. 253 supported UPA, 232 rejected, and 2 abstained. I could not understand what happened. How come many people did not vote at all? But, it showed the message UPA Won. So, I called my friend and told the result. CNN IBN also showed the same message. But, after 5 minutes, CNN IBN changed the message to UPA ahead in voting. Then, it said, there were 54 manual votes, and they have to count those votes. But, even after half an hour, Times Now did not change it's message. It still showed UPA Won message. After that, I came to my desk for a meeting, and I came to know the result almost half an hour late. The result is 275 MPs supported UPA, 256 opposed, and 10 abstained.

Around a month back, TV9 (a telugu news channel) wanted to show the result much before than others, and announced that Mallikarjuna Rao (a famous telugu comedian) died, eventhough he was hospitalized for serious illness. (He died 2 days later).

Many TV Channels want to show information much before others, and they show incorrect information. Because of that, the entire system is becoming unreliable. Now, I cannot depend on the news channels, even if the news is live, and I am forced to wait for some time to confirm from all the news channels.