The writer is a creative director at a digital studio.
He tweets @thehouseofsaad
Are you a highly polarising figure with complicated views, ideas and perspectives? ‘The Wild West’ has ‘The Solution’: Soundbites. That’s right. Who among us does not wish to be compactly reduced to a label that is readymade for Western consumption? Taliban sympathiser. Get a few dozen clicks out of that. Womaniser cricket-star. Journalism is not dead! Hard-right heart-throb. Cronkite weeps tears of joy.
The New York Times is an excellent American newspaper and a tribute to journalistic failure. When it is not publishing heartwarming editorials of how to understand your local disenfranchised white nationalist, it is publishing headlines like this: “Cricket Star. Sex Symbol. PM? It May Be Imran Khan’s Time.” The New York Post and Buzzfeed are on edge. A new contender for clickbait vapidity has emerged. To be fair, this is still better than when they let Judith Miller write about Iraqi Weapons of Mass Destruction (WMDs) of which, as we all know, a great many were found.
Meanwhile, British media finally tries of telling the story of Imran Khan through the well-worn lens of Jemima Goldsmith. The Independent analysed the alarming parallels between Khan and French President Emmanuel Macron because he too has… “Glamour” and “Charisma”. You must contend with the notion, dear reader, that leaders rarely have these two components.
Think about it. Macron, the globalist, ex-investment banker, is pushing France towards an individualism that rolls back social spending. Khan, the protectionist cricketer, is demanding an Islamic welfare state. These things are complete opposites, but in a much more real way they are exactly the same.
Western journalism has won again. Cronkite thumps his desk in celebration.
CNN, Fox News, MSNBC and other 24/7 networks found they could thrive around the 9/11 news cycle. They needed big, breaking news items in order to grab up millions of viewers. Sensationalism and partisanship became the name of the game thanks to the genius of tyrants like Roger Ailes, funded by tyrants like Rupert Murdoch (the fathers of Fox News). A small but persistent challenge these channels faced was the satirical news genre. Jon Stewart acted as one of American comedy’s more influential Super bosses (coming a close second to SNL creator Lorne Michaels) by bringing a hilarious contrast to TV: An authentic fake newsman. With sincere diatribes and real anger in his voice, Stewart found a massive audience thanks to his talent for skewering the mainstream media’s gaffes and biases on the Daily Show. Early on, David Foster Wallace correctly identified television’s unrelenting capacity to ironically castigate itself. Post-modern irony is not particularly difficult to achieve on TV. After all, there is no shortage of targets to choose from. The beauty and skill in Stewart’s the Daily Show lay in there being a point behind the satire since, on its own, satire is a tool for dismantlement that provides no innate solutions.
But Stewart has retired. In his place is a cavalcade of ex-disciples who now run shows with grim purpose. They are the Resistance. Their cause is Noble. Cronkite is weeping. The Daily Show’s own successor, Trevor Noah, provides a stark contrast to Stewart’s substance and authenticity.
An empty grin runs across Noah’s face as uninspired impressions and stranger in a strange land schtick repeat themselves night after night. Most recently he compiled an uninspired comparison between Imran Khan and Donald Trump. Khan offers up no short supply of items to critique but with painfully weak comparisons and a manic made-for-YouTube delivery that would not be amiss on Fox News itself, the circle is now complete. What do you do when the antidote to reductive, clickbait Western journalism begins to act… Well, like reductive, clickbait Western journalism?
No one is asking the international media to contain complex multitudes. That would be like asking the Indian media to stop merrily frothing at the very mention of the BJP. But the courtesy of explaining the world leader of a nuclear power in terms that are not black and white labels is not a lot to ask. The man has a great number of faults and severely ugly missteps. He also has achieved extraordinary successes. Avoiding messiah or demagogue terminology would make for a good start. Judging a leader’s capacity, good or bad, to govern once they actually begin their tenure would be downright fantastic. But maybe this is a lot to ask. After all, is the purpose of a news network or national paper to inform its audience?
No, said Fox News’ Ailes. It is to have them feel informed.
No, says the Indian media. It is to promote PM Modi and to never ask him to apologise for the 2002 Gujarat Muslim massacre and present-day Kashmiri horrors.
No, says Breitbart. It is to try to get the N-word into the American lexicon without fear of consequence.
No, says Noah. It is to fall victim to empty post-modern irony and to fail to follow the one principle Stewart embodied: Punch up. Don’t kick down.
Perceptions of Pakistan matter. They define your economy, thanks to the IMF and CPEC. They define your national security thanks to the perceived instability relentlessly commented on by blowhards and pundits around the world. And on the strength of those items alone, they move and shake the foundations of the nation. Pakistan itself should work hard to develop its journalistic integrity and competence so that it may have sway with international outlets so as to be able to better represent itself. Till then, it will remain at the mercy of foreign media forces.
Published in The Express Tribune, August 28th, 2018.
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