Fantastic Idea!

Times Of India, we said, is a profoundly frivolous paper. Living up to our epithet, the ToI, in its editorial titled Republic of Cricket (Nov 28) has this to say:

"Just as Indian citizens get to elect their representatives, and shareholders vote on company policies, cricket viewers should be allowed to select their team as wells as coach. Why let the ham-handed BCCI run the show and, in fact, ruin it? In this day of Internet and mobile phones, fans could just vote for their favourites at the click of a button. This would have the advantage of doing away with BCCI and a selection process that lacks transparency. It would also solve the problem of accountability of players and the question of linking performance with salary. Since cricket fans are in effect paying the salaries of cricketers, they should decide the players’ pay packets. …."
That, dear reader, is heights! Unthinking juvenile idealism in the edit!! By the way, how about extending the same logic to newspapers, ToI to being with: Deciding news focus, priorities, based on readers’ feedback and judging the edit and editorial team’s performance based on readers voting? After all, readers' patronage is what fetches ads and helps them earn their salaries!? How many at ToI Hyderabad would retain their jobs should such a system be introduced? Who would have the honour of being voted out first?
Don't you think the blog is doing just the same? What's your word on the new look? Write to apmedia@rediffmail.com. Please, keep your comments brief... We have to reject some that were longer than the posts!