April 13, 2003

Information scrubbing, that is what officials do — be they American or Pakistanis — when it comes to lying to the masses. Pulling at their heartstrings and tugging tricks are the oldest form of manipulation by media managers

I thought I had left Pakistan Television behind when I came to America... a kind of good riddance to bad rubbish, or out of sight out of mind cliche — admittedly somewhat hackneyed, yet these commonplaces came handy when one was young and wanted out of a bad relationship.

But PTV crossed the Atlantic and forcibly entered my home. So, here I am today: the drone from ‘analysts’ induce stupor — these talking heads seem to be permanent fixtures of PTV studio set (God knows they’ve been there for donkey’s years); and jarring are the sound bytes floating around from women who appear grousing as they read the news; but shriller still is the segued nach ghana, upping the decibels to an unbearable level. The only thing pleasing in this comedy of years is the absence of dupatta-on-the head newscasters — so three cheers for whoever rid us of that hypocrisy.

In the next room, whiffs from Fox TV — especially the barks from the hound-dog Bill O’Reilly saying ‘Moslems’ deserve death because they hate America (with a sick smirk the creep gloated that 100,000 Iraqis were dead as compared to “only” 100 Yankees) merge with chaste Urdu mouthed by has-been COAS Gen. Baig’s pathetic musings from Islamabad on US demonizing the world and will pay for it one day. Is it a Friday sermon or a political interview being aired on World Today from PTV’s London studios?

But wait — here’s another comic strip: host Aamir Ghauri announces breathlessly that the Information Minister Shaikh Rashid is on the line (wow!): “Hello, Shaikh sahib,” he says with anticipation, only to be greeted with a squeak “Uh, oh, ah, Shaikh sahib has stepped out.” “This must be the servant,” Ghauri figures out and tells the viewers waiting to witness Shaikh’s stellar performance. We’re rewarded for our patience for the next minute, the Pollyanna swagger plus a photo with his signature toupee and grin comes on.

“Mere bhai, Pakistan is not Iraq or Afghanistan. As spokesman of the Government of Pakistan, I granti (guarantee) you that our turn (to be attacked by US) will never come!” he tells Ghauri.

“Thank you so much, Shaikh sahib, for taking the time out of your busy schedule to talk to us,” grovels Ghauri. The man has to watch his backside in case PTV gifts away London to another sifarshi.

This is but one hobbler of the ‘World Today’ that PTV throws at us daily. The axed Yousuf Baig Mirza, now biting the dust along with other PTV chiefs fallen from grace, never really bothered thinking outside the box.

That the guy managed to hang in for full 42 months after his benefactors got the kibosh sure speaks volumes of the sleazy species PTV specializes in. Y.B. Mirza came with a bang when relative-in-law, Shahbaz Sharif ruled Punjab. As PTV’s new head, Mirza made sure that the Khabarnama was a nightly Sharif rah-rah from start to finish. And the man firmly pulling his strings from behind was Mushahid Hussain Sayyed, the then facile information minister, now waiting in the wings to serve Musharraf with the same souped-up spin he applied on the Sharifs. But look, where it got them?

Mirza, who survived the military coup until now, also shows us how sick our rulers are. Thinking they can seize the hearts and minds of millions of Pakistanis who have been tuning in to Khabarnama for doggone years, our pygmy-czars continue to fish in the same toady tank and pull out the same flatterers, self-seekers and boot-lickers.

Before Mirza, we had Raana Shaikh during Benazir Bhutto’s second stint in office. Ms Shaikh, loaded with talent but weighed down by an outsized ego, promised to purge PTV of its decrepitude. Her attempts at reform were heroic, until ensnared by the First Couple into selling her soul. What a waste of creativity!

Happy I was when Mohammad Malick and Samina Pirzada got tipped as the new managing director. Either would have brought some fireworks into the babu-ridden culture, bedrock of mediocrity. How else can you explain telephone operators, typists, personal assistants being hired as producers? PTV under the new man in charge — that is Akhtar Waqar Azim — will continue to mine lowlifes as mindlessly as before.

As a product of PTV, having funnelled his way to the top after 30 years, Azim’s career is unremarkable. To expect him to morph PTV into a compost of fire, energy and dynamite is comporting with the surreal. Would he ever pipe up the courage to open discussions of controversial kind? Honour killings for example. Will he invite women MNA’s — veiled and unveiled — to honestly, repeat honestly, debate the inherent flaws in the Qisas and Diyat law that favour the murderer? Who will bell the cat and amend the law? Will Azim allow interviews of victims’ families or even show the faces of men who commit such heinous murders in the name of honour?

On war in Iraq, will the phalanx of grey in brown suits of the equivocal variety stick out their necks and properly trash Saddam Hussein, because he’s no friend of Pakistan. He’s, perhaps, the only Muslim ruler sidling up with India against Pakistan on Kashmir. Instead, how about really discussing ways of helping the Iraqis and steering the Pakistani mob hysteria towards tangible help to their brothers in distress.

Or would Azim get his reporters to ask tough questions of king-maker Ch. Shujaat Hussain, who recently in an interview finger-wagged the present government that it too needed scrutiny by the National Accountability Bureau (NAB)?

Cravenly none will ask Chaudhry from Gujarat how he came by his fortune considering the family head was a mere police constable? Those grand Gulberg homes (it was years and years ago) near the canal and opposite FCC college, stood testament to their wealth (quadrupled by now) showing off carved wooden portals fit for a palace. And more recently, when he served as Sharif’s interior minister, the FIA (Federal Investigating Agency) was stuffed with sifarshis and third-rate men whose only credentials were wheeling and dealing.

Can PTV discuss the latest report on Pakistan press published by New York based Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) that talks about journalists working without the protections offered by democratic institutions, with many avoiding publicizing state-sponsored harassment for fear of reprisals.

According to CPJ: “One of the country’s leading newspapers sent a private letter to General Musharraf after two of its correspondents complained of harassment and threats from intelligence officials. The letter, a copy of which CPJ obtained, urged Musharraf to order an inquiry into the matter but also explained that the newspaper “does not want to generate a public controversy through its publications... when there is a dire need for greater harmony in the country to meet the external threat.”

Lighten up, American TV is as lily-livered as the PTV! ‘The damped-down anger of the dry drunk (Bush)’ coupled with secretary Defence Rumsfeld’s cockiness has converted the CNN (the most trusted name in news) as “Team Bush’s ministry of propaganda”. Jabbering reporters and analysts are heard glorifying the war while dismissing all anti-war protesters as drivel.

Fox News is like the Voice of America, but with one difference: Fox has prettier anchors — blondes of bottled variety with loads of liposuction and sexy gloss.

At the daily briefings conducted by the White House and the Pentagon, all we see are stenographer-like reporters dutifully copying down and parroting what they’re told. They fail to look beyond the official line. In the Iraq crisis, networks are megaphones for official views. FAIR, a national media watch group studied four TV networks, and found that 76 per cent of all sources were current or former officials, leaving little room for independent and grassroots views. Network newscasts, dominated by current and former U.S. officials, largely exclude Americans who are skeptical of or opposed to an invasion of Iraq.

Not surprisingly then, Al Jazeera - the only independent channel in the Arab world, watched by 35 million viewers — has become a ‘must-see TV’. It’s one network the Americans hate because it gives them a run for their money. Lycos search engine claims that the hits for the word Al Jazeera have broken all records.

The Doha-based Al Jazeera (AJ) recently got its English language Web site running for 12 hours before hackers mauled it and directed the viewers to a Web page bearing an American flag. Akamai Technologies, whose clients include MSNBC and CNN, were under contract to AJ to watch-guard the site from hackers. But now Akamai too has come under official pressure and has weaselled out of the contract, telling AJ to get lost!

Calling the hacking “pathetic”, Joanne Tucker, the managing editor of the AJ site says: “It doesn’t derail us... it’s a narrow, pro-censorship attempt to silence a news site.”

Information scrubbing, that’s what officials do — be they American or Pakistanis or whoever — when it comes to lying to the masses. Pulling at their heartstrings and tugging tricks is the oldest manipulation by media managers.

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