Journalists or Americans?

I wrote a letter to CNN. I haven’t done that (written a letter) since I first decided to stalk my man way back in 1997. What oh what could possibly have roused me from my phoenix like slumber? (I prefer phoenix to meteorologically challenged bear). It was the rousing mating call of CNN, America’s first line of Defence and offense, coming into the battlefield with its standard war cry of ‘beware the horrific Islamist terrorists!’

I turned on the TV one night to find the last TV wars prom queen Christiana Amanpour holding forth in her assertive independent reporter style about the large number of Pakistani people supporting the Taliban. This statement was based on her limited movements in the North West Frontier Province of Pakistan, and doubtless the gossip around the coffee shop of the Islamabad’s Marriott. It took President Musharraf three days to get the hyenas of war to consider the other 85% of the country, but by then the damage had been done. For many gullible Pakistani international news channel watchers, life would never be the same again. Because they’d seen the writing on the studio walls of BBC and CNN, and it said ‘Islamists’ and ‘Muslims’.

Is Islamist even a word?

In the immediate aftermath of the WTC attacks analysts, leaders and media personnel alike took their cues from the Americans. That some in the US media was stepping on the toes of other religions and ethnicities was apparent from day one. It was Israeli ‘settlers’ and Palestinian ‘terrorists’, American ‘military’ and Pakistani ‘militancy’, Islamic ‘Jihad’ (pronounced JEEEhad, like YEEEhaw) and Christian ‘crusade’. Many assumed this hysteria would die down as it was tempered by truth. But the US media had got its hands firmly on the ball, and proceeded to run with it, way past the pitiful Defence, and on outside the ambit of the playing field.

A journalist’s role is to report the facts in an objective, impartial manner. They are the heralds of truth, citizens of the global village, knights of truth and freedom. Or so we have been told by various western initiatives to strengthen independent journalism in volatile countries. But the record on the gramophone seems to have changed.

Shortly after the attacks NBC newsman Tim Russert wore an American flag pin during his interview with Dick Cheney. “I may be a journalist, but I’m an American first” he is reported to have said afterwards. So much for professional integrity. His remarks prompted a retort from Tom Brokaw, who suggested journalists should not indulge in actions or rhetoric that carried the position of the government of the day. This prompted attacks on Brokaw’s own credibility.

This was but one in a series of internal squabbles that erupted in the American news media after the tragedy. Reporters and journalists commented left right and center on issues that turned out to be nothing more than cries of ‘wolf’ coming from confused quarters. For example, the rumor that CNN had banned the use of the word ‘terrorist’ prompted a series of articles and comments in the news media, with one famous news anchor threatening to walk out if the word ‘terrorist’ was banned. What sparked this thing was probably something as simple as ‘should you call a murderer a murdered before he has been proven guilty’? But apparently, and this is surprising coming from the land of questioning and individuality, there was a time to question and a time to fall into step.

Take Bill Maher for example. Bill Maher is a very funny man. He hosts a show on ABC called ‘politically incorrect’. Guess what its about. His politically incorrect takes on everything under the sun were appreciated by conservative and liberals alike as freedom of expression (and bad taste). Until, that is, the night this funny man said that lobbing cruise missiles from 2000 miles away was a cowardly act, flying a jet with self and innocents on board was not. And for the next few days, Maher found himself in a wilderness of righteous condemnation. He lost sponsors, supporters, and viewers. The lesson, according to white house spokesman Ari Flescher was that “there are reminders to all Americans that they need to watch what they say, watch what they do, and this is not a time for remarks like that; there never is.”

Excellent. That’s all the offensive politically incorrect stuff eliminated then. Except it wasn’t. CBS ’60 Minutes’ humor man Andy Rooney went on record making fun of the Holy Koran. Congressmen put their ignorance on record. Angry youth killed a Sikh man and a Pakistani. So while it was ‘not a time for remarks like that’ in one reality, things continued in the normal vein in all other realities.

The thing I really like about the American media is their consistency.

But, lest I too be accused of bias, let me point my pinky at the BBC as well. CNN’s own Christian might have met her match in tight-lipped Lyse Doucet from the BBC. She’s been around for a while, but it is in moments of crisis that talent (or is it tenacity) really shines through. Her aggression, her focus, her determination combined make her a name to be reckoned with in the pools of interview worthy personalities, much a like a small neurotic terrier is feared by all who walks past its chosen lurking place. The people want answers, and by golly she’ll give them answers. And if she doesn’t get the ones she wants, why she’ll just henpeck her victim till they squawk. “Don’t lie to me Qazi Hussain Ahmed!” All right Lyse, I will if you stop spitting in righteous indignation into my chai.

And then there is this anchor and that anchor reading propaganda in the best PTV style. There is breaking news from correspondents who can’t leave their hotels, reports from one eyed correspondents, telephonic conversations with people in Russian army barracks in Tajikistan (all they’re reported to date is that locals are listening to Irani radio), interviews with analysts with ‘ignorant’ and ‘puppet’ written across their foreheads.

Did PTV have it right all along?

Is Shaista Zaid the western medias next poster girl?