Irrational Patriotism, Liberalism and Nuclear Arsenal

Re: # 10
This is very interesting. So these talkshow hosts are first cleared by the agencies? Well may be this partly explains why they keep on repeating the same thing again and again

Re: # 5
"it is just that in order to get prominent, one has to keep feeding the superiority complex of the majority."

In order to have a well-paid journalistic job at an established media outlet, you must have the recommendation and trust of army/ISI in Pakistan. Some of my good friends from college days are prominent journalists. They advise me to reconsider my position on army's role in the country. After Musharraf agreed to US war in Afghanistan, my friend, a talkshow host told me fundamentalism is dead in Pakistan. I am told by such friends to leave the opposition to army to the right-wingers of JI and Taliban. Recently a communist leader sent me his article in response to my article "Between US and local masters". In his article he posed confidence in General Kayani and praised the army while condemning PPP and PML N.
Media has a compulsion to be majority driven but dissenting opinion is censured. Such is the all-pervasive influence of army/ISI in Pakistan.

Now watch as this becomes the dominant narrative in pakiland

Taliban in Pakistan blame U.S. Blackwater for deadly blast
www.chinaview.cn 2009-10-29 22:24:06 Print

ISLAMABAD Oct. 29 (Xinhua) -- Chief of Taliban movement in Pakistan Hakimullah Mehsud has blamed the controversial American private firm Blackwater for the bomb blast in Peshawar which killed 108 people, local news agency NNI reported Thursday.

The bomb exploded at a crowded market at Chowk Yadgar on Wednesday, also injured 150 people.

Hakimullah Mehsud told media that if Taliban can carry out attacks in Islamabad and target Pakistan army's headquarters, then why they should target general public.

He claimed that American security agency Blackwater and Pakistani agencies are involved in attacks in public places to blame the militants.

When asked that the people also think that the militants are involved in such attacks, the Taliban leader was quoted as saying, "Our war is against the government and the security forces and not against the people. We are not involved in blasts."

Azam Tariq, the Taliban spokesman, who was accompanying Hakimullah, warned that those media organizations could be targeted which are defaming Taliban.

Information Minister in Northwest Frontier Province Mian Iftikhar Hussain and the Pakistani army spokesman Major General Athar Abbas had blamed militants for the Peshawar blast, saying that the militants are facing defeat in South Waziristan tribal region and are now targeting the people.

Re: # 4 media is controlled by foxy wise shrewd jews. They have brains , to plan and money and strong wrists to carry those plans. King of KSA can buy NYTIMES and Washington postby alloting 3 days pumping of black liquid but useing brain is not our forte , marching protesting and blowing up things are not going to get us anywhere.
And people like arjun king of wild indian monkeys does not help for sure.

Re: # 5
Spot on Taji. It is exactly like that.
In a democratic economy with not fully developed check and balance institutions, media has to play a proper progressive cum accountability role.
It is not doing that. Since the mindset of public is delusional, it reinforces it to "cash" on it.

The thrust of the article is a reciprical relationship between self delusional urbanites and media. I agree with argun that media does not live in the vaccum but media also shapes the opinion apart from merely reflecting it.
So Razia on that account is right. Right now both media and urbanities are in a self reinforcing cycle.
Moreover I wanted to point out that this behaviour is taking the focus away from more critical issues. in fact if you read the article's second half, i have tried to bring out the importance of urban middle class's potentially progressive role. however here both media and urban middle class are on the wrong and self delusional track.
Moreover the article also laments the lack of liberal presence in the media

I think both arjun and razia are correct to some extent. The majority mindset influences the mainstream media and vice versa. What is alarming in case of Pakistan's Urdu media is that alternatives voices and views are hardly heard. And it is not because there are any less able media persons in the Urdu media, it is just that in order to get prominent, one has to keep feeding the superiority complex of the majority.

#3 Posted by rhusain on October 29, 2009 7:12:54 am


media fashions the public opinion, sometimes public opinion fashions which media is more successful.


The media can only push public opinion in one direction for a short while..then, the public worldview dominates the media narrative

case in point..all media in the US pushed the iraq war..however, the public turned on the war and the media followed...with the few obvious exceptions like faux news..even they still fit into the pattern...they are shaped by the worldview of their base...

So..if your media is spouting conspiracy theories for the longest time, it's because it's in line with paki world view..

arjun: not sure if your comments are entirely correct. Sometimes media fashions the public opinion, sometimes public opinion fashions which media is more successful. Pak has always used 'they are out to get us' as the escape goat for every shortfall in their political/ educational/ military/ economical endeavor. It is true that each country including US, India and Israel works for its own interests and exploits situations in other countries (and their own) to get the most they can but it is hardly according to any "grand" plan. I agree with Mr. Habib that beating of such baseless stories by media is irresponsible and dangerous.

The media doesn't live in a vacuum. If they spout conspiracy theories, it's because the conspiracy theories are in line with the world view of the majority of pakis...To say the media is making pakis believe in conspiracy theories is putting the cart before the horse...

Raza Habib
The ISPR press release on Kerry-Lugar bill, is a clear sign of military dominance in Pakistan. What efforts were made to legitimise Pakistan's nuclear programme? Pakistani militaristic/Islamist mindset is paralysed by fear emanating out of their own ambitions of glory. Kamran Shafi's column in Dawn titled "Bullying bloody civilians" is a testament to the overwhelming power of military over the country. Voices of peace and positivism are are enemy to frenzied war-mongers who hold Pakistan in a convulsive embrace.