Reviewing ‘The Review’

Exactly a week ago today, Kamran Yousaf and Shahbaz Rana of this newspaper launched a new talk show on the Express News channel. Why would these perfectly sane reporters of the investigating class join the world of noisy anchors and talk-talk shows was beyond comprehension. Taking liberty with an Oscar Wilde quote, men watch because they are tired; women, because they are curious: both are disappointed. The prospect of further disappointment, especially with those one has learned to admire, was daunting. True, the shows taking up the issues of bread and butter seriously are few and far between. As an economist, one should welcome a new venture. But economics is practised in the globalised world of politics. The shows that exist churn out doctored numbers without a socioeconomic story or political economy context. Together, Kamran and Shahbaz have cultivated minds to harvest these very areas. But the idiot box also demands to pose and act. How will they fit this bill?

Come Friday, and one watched with fingers crossed. They opened the show with the Finance Czar, Hafeez Shaikh, the person most relevant to their beat. His abstinence from media is well-known. With the economy in doldrums, he is overly careful in his fourth occupation of public office. He keeps his distance from the “Boston mafia”, Chicago fundamentalists and the Harvard hitmen. But our duo, without being nasty, succeeded in provoking him into making the standard statement made invariably by all those returning home temporarily to sit atop the underlings here — itni bari nokri chor ke khidmat ke liey aya hun (I left such a big job to come here and serve) or something to that effect.

The duo patiently let him parade the figures of improvement here and there, interrupted only by the unstoppable commercial breaks. Even then Shaikh was seen complaining about not being able to present his case fully. Focusing on their search for the real story, the freshly brewed anchors let him continue in the next episode. What they brought out through calibrated interventions was that it was old wine in an old bottle. The current account has improved, the fiscal situation is improving and reforms being put in place will take us into growth and jobs creation. The anchors did not embarrass him by mentioning tomatoes (Shaikh himself obliquely referred to it on the mention of the number 17 in a different context). They rather discussed inflation in general to seditiously show the viewers that Shaikh was not very clear as to how high interest rates could bring inflation down. Similarly, they were able to show Shaikh’s lack of interest in the official tabloid of corruption and inherited crises. By implication, the political temperature needed to be lowered. Economic stability was unthinkable without political stability. Long-term salvation of the economy required the dynamism of trade with other countries. Whether other countries included neighbours was left unsaid. All major trading nations first trade big in their own neighbourhoods.

Now for the acting bit and the presentational part. Economics is serious business. This does not mean Shahbaz has to be economics personified. It’s showbiz, stupid. No harm smiling here and there. It was okay for the first appearance, but the duo has to avoid running into each other while questioning and interjecting. One at a time is the name of the game. And forget not: you are the interviewers, not interviewees. Last but not the least, the outfits could be smarter.

Forget these pinpricks, viewers (and readers). The Review is a breath of fresh air and the reviewers an intelligent lot. I am excited to watch them again tonight. Are you?

Published in The Express Tribune, November 29^th, 2019.

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