Media is often referred to as the fourth pillar of the state. Who exactly discovered this pillar (and in what circumstances) is unknown. However, the idea has taken on a life of its own, with many people (mostly journalists) wholeheartedly subscribing to it. Let us hope that the originator of the thought was not quite sober at the time, because we are in deep trouble otherwise.
The advent of the social media has made matters worse. From the tweets of renowned opinion-makers one could easily be forgiven for believing that unveiling of Allama Iqbal’s bust at the Gulshan-e-Iqbal Park was the biggest event of last week. As a matter of fact, the week saw, among other things, the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government extending coverage of health insurance to 100% of its citizens. But this was something most mainstream anchors and analysts did not find worthy of their invaluable time, what with having to cover matters such as the twenty first meeting of PDM leaders in twenty-one weeks.
Analysts and anchors who are not constantly flogging dead political horses are amazingly current – even futuristic – in their outlooks, forecasting the downfall and dismemberment of a world power one day, and the dawn of a brave new era the next – all based on their ability to decipher encoded ancient texts. Then there are those who, fully aware of the limitations of human analytical abilities, rely for their predictions directly on the stars, so to speak. To that end they invite astrologers and numerologists on their shows, whose field of interest includes (but is not limited to) local, provincial, national, regional, and global issues.
While we’re at it, who can forget the ‘serious’ journalists who realize that in the final analysis, it is the economy that matters? They have plenty to say on what the government is doing wrong on the fiscal front, and all that is required to reverse the tide. According to them, all the nation’s financial woes would be a thing of the past if only the government officials could bring themselves to heed their advice. The sad fact is that the owners of their own channels and newspapers do not listen to them; what else explains the failure of most of them to run their media houses profitably instead of being perpetually dependent on subsidies, government ads and the like just to be able to pay their employees on time?
Instances of how our media typically operates could be multiplied indefinitely. Let us take but one example: the Peshawar BRT. Our worthy journalists never tire of lamenting the ‘huge’ cost of the project; Often they demand to know what took the project three years to complete instead of the originally announced 6 months; They go on and on about buses catching fire. They compare the per km cost of the project with the Lahore, Rawalpindi, and Multan metros. Hardly anyone of them deems it fitting to mention that the third generation BRT – with its universal design, connectivity, hybrid buses, feeder routes covering a large portion of the city, pedestrian bridges and walkways, commercial kiosks and what not – is well-nigh incomparable with the other metro bus services of the country. That it is not only an ADB financed project, but an ADB led one too. That the problem of buses catching fire had been sorted out; and the buses were insured to start with. They also find it beneath themselves to ask and present views of the citizens who are using the service, or the effect it has had on mitigating the overall traffic situation in the city.
Analysts and anchors who are not constantly flogging dead political horses are amazingly current – even futuristic – in their outlooks, forecasting the downfall and dismemberment of a world power one day, and the dawn of a brave new era the next – all based on their ability to decipher encoded ancient texts. Then there are those who, fully aware of the limitations of human analytical abilities, rely for their predictions directly on the stars, so to speak. To that end they invite astrologers and numerologists on their shows, whose field of interest includes (but is not limited to) local, provincial, national, regional, and global issues.
And even their comparison is selective. For it stops short of weighing the ridership of the Peshawar BRT now that it has been in operation for some time with figures for the other metro bus services and the Orange Line. That would presumably confuse their audience; and we cannot have that, can we now?
No doubt there are some noble exceptions among journalists, but that only proves the rule. Here, it would be unfair not to mention some of the redeeming qualities of our journalists. TV anchors can always be relied upon to instigate any number of slanging matches between politicians, much to the delight of their viewers in desperate need of quality entertainment after a hard day’s work. Moreover, our media men and women (associated with the print as well as the electronic media) are second to none when it comes to sermons on how things ought to be as opposed to how they are. And to be fair to our journalism fraternity, the first three pillars of the state are not exactly the world’s envy either.
