This story is not apocryphal. In 1989, CPI(M) leader Sitaram Yechuri went on a friendly visit to Romania. On his return, he wrote a glowing piece on the communist government of Nikolae Ceausescu in the People?s Democracy.

All was well with Romania, went the article, and Ceausescu smelt of roses. Except that, within weeks there was a violent coup in Romania, the people rose up and old Ceausescu was removed ? forever.

Partisan by definition, politicians do not good journalists make. Even Economic Times, a paper that thrives on outlandish ideas, has been quick to make amends for its latest gimmick of getting the finance minister to be the ?editor? of Tuesday?s paper.

P. Chidambaram?s signed editorial (written ?in one hour flat?) in Tuesday?s ET said, ?The Congress-led government cannot be faulted for acting strictly in accordance with constitutional propriety.? Wednesday?s lead editorial, this time written by unnamed ET hacks, began, ?The dissolution of the Bihar legislature might be technically proper but it is politically gross.?

The finance minister?s joke, ?If I lose my job, I can always be editor of ET,? will, it seems, remain just that, a joke.

Of course, the finance minister doesn?t really need to fear for his job (he has passed top of the class in every one-year-of-UPA-government ranking). But that?s our media-crazy pols for you. Even the best of them ? where else can one place this successful lawyer- cum-Harvard MBA ? are utterly addicted to the pursuit of headlines.

A prime minister gives marks to his government, the first time ever, only so that it grabs the headlines and tells one and all about his unhappiness with his partners. The prime minister?s office even goes out of its way to make sure reporters, unlike the PM, read the whole speech.

For some, even this is not enough. They don?t just want coverage as public figures, they want to be media stars too. Maybe it?s time Maneka Gandhi got the credit for starting a trend. However inconsequential a politician or a television personality, she was the first people?s leader to anchor a programme (on India TV).

Now, while the current finance minister spends a whole day in a newspaper office (?clearing, editing, captioning, chopping, dropping, headlining every story?), a former one hosts a programme on Zee News to find out how the not-so-shining India lives.

But tonight they may get their comeuppance. Bunty and Babli, aka Abhishek Bachchan and Rani Mukherjee, read the 8 pm bulletin on NDTV India. Who will be the Indian news idol, the neta or the abhineta?

Who cared?

The story of baby Lokman is so indescribably sad that it is difficult to put it into words. He was a rare oversized 11-month baby with an unnatural appetite that his poor village parents were hard put to meet. For the media, however, he was the much-desired ?human story? that soon turned into a frenzy. Doctors were badgered for an explanation, the government was put on notice. The usual tests came up with nothing. Keen to be seen to be doing something in the eyes of the media, the baby was dragged to Calcutta and admitted to hospital. Suddenly, he died. The poor parents blamed the hospital doctors, but who cared? The ?baby giant? was no longer there. The reporters and the cameras had moved away ? to hunt for the next Lokman.

Under objectivity

The Sun couldn?t have enough of Saddam in his undies; Al Jazeera didn?t show these ?denigrating? shots at all. Dead American soldiers killed in Iraq are commonplace on Al Jazeera TV; they are rarely seen in the US. There never is, never can be, any objective news judgment. Politics is all. Take your pick.