Not just Sridevi but Indian Media needs an obituary: Barkha Dutt

As a broadcast journalist (currently on a sabbatical from the TV screen), I felt deeply embarrassed. I am sure I have done shows I am not super proud of, but never this. I saw one channel reconstruct the sequence of events leading up to her final hours by showing a floating Sridevi in a bathtub. Another tweeted a promotional promising all the details of "Sridevi's last 15 minutes in bathroom. After Dubai media reported that the forensic report said there were "traces of alcohol in her blood, shows interviewed friends of the family on whether Sridevi usually drank red wine or vodka. "She only drank wine; never hard liquor, our news presenters reassured us, as if to say that women who drink deserve to die, or at the very least, live dangerously. The whispers about her "drinking were the perfect cue for the media to unleash morality judgments and wild speculations driven by the kind of double standards that are reserved for women .

our fulminating anchors could be using their investigative journalist prowess to chase many other critical stories in India. We have a $1.8 billion bank scam, for one. Or the recent murder of nine children mowed down by a speeding SUV allegedly driven by a(now-suspended) Bharatiya Janata Party functionary

A number of television shows have virtually alluded to murder as the cause of Sridevi's death without any off-record sourcing or on-record claim. Above all, it is so unfair to the two young daughters of Sridevi, whose loss has been compounded by the furious scrutiny of their (fiercely private) mother's life.

For me, the final embarrassment was watching a news host on India's most watched Hindi channel stand next to a white bathtub across which was emblazoned the words "Maut Ka Bathtub, or "The Bathtub of Death.

Not just Sridevi but television news needs an obituary, I said.We often accuse television of being merely TRP (Television Rating Point) hunters. But the viewers are the ones who keep tuning in.