I Want the News Dammit!

I have been having a hard time getting the news on Mumbai sitting here a million miles away in Manhattan. I am sure TV news coverage is great back home but I have the web to rely on. As does the rest of the world. This is because global news is on page 16 of our newspapers, clearly less important and compelling as Britney's pregnant belly or wasps swarming around a giant nest in Georgia, and the local news channels can't stop talking about the flash flood warnings (anytime it rains more than one centimeter)...therefore the web is my only hope.
Oh how I adore the web.
But I am just so disappointed with Indian news websites like timesofindia.com and ndtv.com. Call me greedy but the news is not updated at the frequency I would like to see and the stories are brief and shallow. Overall, the content is flat and not emotionally engaging at all.


Why is more than half the homepage devoted to distracting banner advertisements?
Could they not have taken these ads down at a time of crisis like this one? It isn't fair to have "Get marriage proposals daily from shaadi.com" and "NRIs, no miminum balance required for the next 10 years" messaging flashing wildly at me and screaming for my attention, when I am frantically trying to absorb the horror that is going on back home.
The matrimony banner is as big as the main picture on the timesofindia.com homepage...no wait actually it's bigger!!!
Come on people.
And while NDTV dedicates comparatively less real estate to banner ads, what is up with the banner ad promoting Frederick Forsyth's new book 'The Afghan, a chilling story of modern terrorism' on the same page as the leading story on the Mumbai local train bombings??


I mean can we be a little sensitive here?

There is a time and place for cross-selling and contextual advertising and this clearly isn't it.
A little moderation (please hire someone who checks to see where the ads are being placed for goodness sake!) and just plain common sense would be much appreciated.