Media madness

As the Bombay tragedy was unfolding on TV screens, Pakistani anchorpersons were busy concocting unimaginable cock and bull stories. Most fantastic theory was weaved by a celebrity anchorperson who claimed Ajmal Kasab was neither a Pakistani nor a Muslim but a Hindu. His lone proof was a yellow-colour wrist band Ajmal Kasab was wearing

Honesty is the soul of credibility while truth is credibility personified. Credibility for any media outlet is what faith is to a believer. It is a battle media have to continuously fight. Nothing damages the credibility a free media like covert relationships with the corridors of power. However, not in the Absurdistan of a country we call Pakistan. Here, credibility is the first virtue sacrificed at the altar of motivation. Counting on audience’s gullibility, Pinocchio School of journalism believes that conspiracy theories would hide anchorpersons’ long noses only if the theory is fantastic enough. Pakistani media, print as well as electronic, cut a sorry figure after the Bombay attacks. They have become an even pathetic spectacle in their coverage of ‘Saneha Abbottabad’ (Abbottabad tragedy).

When Bombay was attacked on 26 November 2008, the blame was laid on Pakistan’s door. In response, Pakistani media started off by demanding evidence for this accusation. However, the stance changed after briefings at the Inter Service Public Relations, or ISPR, Rawalpindi offices. Soon after the ISPR briefings, RAW became the buzz word in Pakistani media. The Bombay attacks were declared a RAW plan to defame Pakistan. The Indian government was blamed for failing to anticipate the attack and mishandling the rescue operation. Hameed Gul and Shirin Mazari were running from one recording studio to the other, repeatedly classifying, in every panel discussion, the Mumbai attackers as either Hindu militants or Indian Muslims, but definitely not Pakistanis. Media madness had its climax when Prime Minster Yusuf Raza Gilani sacked his National Security Advisor Mehmud Ali Durrani. The ex-advisor had declared Ajmal Kasab, sole surviving Bombay attacker, a Pakistani national in an interview with Indian media.

As the Bombay tragedy was unfolding on TV screens, Pakistani anchorpersons were busy concocting unimaginable cock and bull stories. Most fantastic theory was weaved by a celebrity anchorperson who claimed Ajmal Kasab was neither a Pakistani nor a Muslim but a Hindu. His lone proof was a yellow-colour wrist band Ajmal Kasab was wearing. Ironically, the said celebrity has recently joined the TV channel that was first to declare Ajmal Kasab a Pakistani national. Ironically, after the ‘Saneha Abbottabad’, the same celebrity was busy denying that any operation in Abbottabad was ever conducted. He thought the building lacked designer décor a billionaire like Osama would necessarily require. Also, he thought, there was no collateral damage.

But denying the very occurrence of ‘Saneha Abbottabad’ is not intelligent enough even if pretty fantastic. Hence, a columnist who writes for a Lahore-based right-wing rag has come up with an even incredible claim to prove the fact that Pakistani media are the greatest conspiracy theorists on the face of Mother Earth. In his column on May 4, the said columnist informed us that the Americans, being foolishly naïve, were rejoicing over false news. He claims it was Osama ben Laden’s lookalike killed in the wee hours of May 2. He did not explain, however, if Osama’s widows knew that they were living with a lookalike our poor Gen. Pasha has been guarding the wrong sheikh.

Meantime, a woman anchorperson who with her headscarf would have impressed Gen. Zia, during her show, put an even hilarious question to one of the guests: “Is it possible that the Americans might have captured Osama ben Laden in Afghanistan, brought to Abbottabad and killed there in an attempt to blame Pakistan?”

Lo and behold! same question was posed to a former ISI official Brig. Imtiaz on another TV channel by yet another star anchorperson. Brigadier’s brisk reply was: “Osama was not such a stupid that he sat in the compound waiting for Americans to raid and to kill him”.

The agenda setting was given a public colour as TV reporters landed the Abbottabad streets  interviewing city residents. Even children’s views were sought.  Abbottonians were asked the same question that did you believe Osama was living in their city and was killed by Americans. It was a foregone conclusion that the citizens of Abbottabad found the story of killing Osama ben Laden, at the fortified compound in the vicinity of PMA Kakul, a pure fiction. One wonders if ‘Saneha Abbottabad’ is such a baseless fiction, what explains ‘Ghaibana Namaz e Janaza’ (funeral prayers) held across Pakistan by Jamaat ud Dawa aka Lashkar e Tayyaba.

While the anchorpersons, their guests (mostly members of Jamaat e Islami and JUI), and columnists were busy spinning their webs of lies, an ISI official was telling the BBC on condition of anonymity that “we were totally caught by surprise. They were in and out before we could react.”

Amazingly, the newspapers reporting anonymous ISI official were also flashing statements attributed to unidentified ‘sources’ in security establishment that American authorities had informed Pakistan’s security establishment about the raid and that they were aware of the venue and timing of the operation. We are made to believe, “military personnel in plain clothes were deployed around Bin Laden’s sanctuary at the night of the operation to ensure safe landing and unperturbed doing of the job by American commandos”.

Meantime, The News in a report titled ‘Army top brass blames civilians’ (Saturday, May 7) unwittingly explains the non-stop media madness. The News reports, ‘The top military leaders on Friday met about 20 top TV anchors and journalists and revealed that the present government had not discussed the war on terror with the army “even once during last three years”’. Unfortunately but understandably, The News correspondent has not revealed the names of 20 anchorpersons and journalists even if it is not hard to guess. Once this media madness subsides, the media managers will learn that the credibility gap after the Mumbai attack has grown into a credibility chasm after ‘Abbottabad tragedy’.

Farooq Sulehria is working with Stockholm-based Weekly Internationalen (www.internationalen.se). Before joining Internationalen, he worked for one year,2006-07 at daily The News, Rawalpindi. Also, in Pakistan, he has worked with Lahore-based dailies, The Nation, The Frontier Post and Pakistan. He has MA in Mass Communication from Punjab University, Lahore. He also contributes for Znet and various left publications in Europe and Australia.