Comment is free

It used to be when you read a newspaper article and didn’t like it, you snorted in derision and then went on with your life. The Express Tribune changed all that. Now you can fire up the browser, point yourself at the same article online, scroll down to the comments section and proceed to inform the author of their ineptitude, your analytical superiority and why they deserve to burn in the deepest, most intense fires of hell with their article being scratched on their naked torsos with dulled razors. All with enough grammatical and spelling errors to make a dyslexic weep. That, more than anything else, will be The Express Tribune’s greatest contribution to the intellectual landscape.

Tragically, The Express Tribune will never be remembered for the exceptional acts of research-based journalism committed by its intrepid reporters. Call it a “burger” newspaper all you want in an effort to belittle it, but there have been times when this new broadsheet on the block has informed on important subjects from an angle that other papers missed out on. There has been genuine innovation in reportage here. You missed it because you were too busy being judgmental.

The Express Tribune probably won’t even be remembered for proving that design is as important to a newspaper as content. In a world where we had to choose between The News, which looked like someone had vomited all over a PowerPoint presentation prepared by a colour-blind MBA in love with the comic-sans font and Dawn, which had all the creativity of a chartered accountant’s spreadsheet, The Express Tribune showed us that people appreciate a newspaper that looks pretty.

If the editorial staff is waiting to be praised for transforming our considerations of the opinion column, then they might as well sit down and order something to eat. But that praise is due. Before, the opinion column was staid, reliable and trustworthy. The same handful of people reiterated the same socio-political points week after week. Now, thanks to The Express Tribune, the opinion section of the newspaper is a wild orgy of polemics, information and… well, opinions. It may not be respectable, but dammit if it isn’t addictive. After all, where else could George tell you about his exit strategy, Fasi Zaka compare you to an insect and Ejaz Haider bewilder you with his linguistic obfuscation.

All this will be forgotten, obscured by the role The Express Tribune played in moving Pakistani newspapers online. Before the launch of tribune.com.pk, we were used to local newspapers having the same web presence as my grandfather (the old, basic Dawn.com site used to feature a “low graphics” version which I always worried would feature a man bringing a printout of a word document to your home). All of a sudden you could tweet and Facebook the latest articles. Columns were shared like YouTube clips of kittens sneezing.

In fact, if The Express Tribune’s actual physical subscriptions were even half the number of its daily online visitors, the entire staff would be given raises large enough for each employee to set up their own newspaper.

The positive here is that the local rags were dragged kicking and screaming into the 21st century in terms of their web presence.

Unfortunately, not content with just achieving its place in our cultural and intellectual landscape so quickly, The Express Tribune then decided to defecate all over its surrounding with the inclusion of a “blogs” section on its website. Most of the columns there confirm every criticism levelled against its writing and editorial staff. Still, it’s what makes the paper so controversial and thus so attention-worthy. They are willing to experiment and they deserve credit for their successes as well as their failures. Now stop sending me death threats.

Published in The Express Tribune, April 12^th,  2011.