Losing on the media front

Source: Dawn
By Faizullah Jan 
Monday, 23 Nov, 2009


If Predators and Reapers are the high-tech non-suicide form of suicide bombers, the extremist killing machines (read suicide bombers) are the rudimentary form of drones.—File photo


It is becoming increasingly difficult to objectively analyse the current situation without sounding sympathetic to one of the two equally shadowy entities: the extremists in the form of the Taliban/Al Qaeda and the purveyors of the war on terror. Both are in the business of selling death.
For the United States it is no mean act to kill scores of innocent people in the process of knocking off a ‘high-value’ target; for the Taliban it is ‘religiously’ sanctioned to blow up common people right, left and centre as collateral damage to their own ‘high-value’ target.
How can one defend US drone attacks in the tribal areas of Pakistan that have killed no less than 700 people to take out a handful of terrorists, just as one cannot defend the mass murder carried out by the militants?
The arbitrary drone attacks and the attendant collateral damage appear to provide justification for inhuman brutalities caused by suicide attacks, that reduce people to smithereens, to avenge the killings committed by remote-operated machines.
If Predators and Reapers are the high-tech non-suicide form of suicide bombers, the extremist killing machines (read suicide bombers) are the rudimentary form of drones.
Both exact a very high price in terms of human life for a narrow target. But there is a difference in the aftermath: every drone strike adds to anti-Americanism, while every suicide attack adds to the prevailing confusion about the real perpetrators.
‘Success’ in Swat was made possible by the anti-Taliban feelings that were generated by the extremists when they brutalised the whole valley by blowing up schools and bridges besides subjecting the local people to medieval punishments in the name of morality.
Taliban brutalities and the Swatis’ miseries were amplified by a responsive media which nudged the government and the armed forces into action.
Adverse public opinion and global outrage brought the Taliban down from their high ‘moral’ ground. Shattered, battered and chased in Swat, Waziristan was thought to be the burial ground of the Taliban.
But it does not seem so. Following the anti-extremist operation in South Waziristan, the spate of terrorist attacks in Peshawar and other parts of Pakistan is surprisingly turning public opinion against the government.
Almost every blast that kills scores of people is owned by the TTP. Still many victims blame the government for waging an American war on its own soil — reinforcing the long-standing position of the Taliban.
When it was fought in Malakand, the war was our own where the miscreants were Pakistanis gone astray in their misguided zeal for the Sharia.
In Waziristan, where foreign terrorists of every hue have carved out a fiefdom of their own, the war — which is an extension of Operation Rah-i-Rast of Malakand — is being dubbed an American war.
When a devastating bomb attack killed more than 116 people in Peshawar a distraught citizen pleaded to the media in these words: ‘Whoever is doing this we beg them for God’s sake to stop. We are tired of removing the injured and the dead from the scene.’
But the next plea of the young man was quite alarming: ‘Ask the government to change its foreign policy, take this American war to the US.’
This is sign that civil society, the government and the media are not on the same page as far as the anti-Taliban war is concerned. Large sections of the public believe that deadly attacks on citizens cannot be the handiwork of any Muslim, let alone the Taliban. Why is this the case?
When the armed forces were flexing their muscles for a final showdown in Waziristan, street-smart religious parties raised the alarm first against the Kerry-Lugar bill (KLB — now an act) and then against the shadowy US firm Blackwater (dubbed Xe).
Much hype was created both in the media and on the streets. So much so that bomb attacks were associated with this firm.
The mainstream media, which discussed the KLB threadbare, is yet to have an educated debate on the Blackwater issue. The common perception about the security agency is that it is a special operations force that is in Pakistan for terrorist activities and to take away our nuclear weapons.
It is absolutely impossible to defend Blackwater, but to blame it for every bomb or suicide attack in Pakistan is to ignore the real enemy, which is within.
People are confused by the spin doctors. The media is adding to the confusion by weaving bizarre conspiracy theories. It should have initiated an academic debate on Blackwater, like what its mandate in Iraq and Afghanistan is and how it earned notoriety in Iraq etc.
After all, one of the basic functions of the media is to lay bare the facts before the public so that the latter can form an objective opinion.
What the mass media — especially the electronic media — does is to rush to the scene of a terrorist attack and hold out a mike to the people gathered there to get their opinion.
Since we are too prone to spouting and accepting conspiracy theories, the people blame the government, the armed forces and America for whatever happens to them.
Now when the media amplifies these voices, they become the public perception about the war on terror. The Taliban, who have wreaked havoc in the country, end up as the heroes and the government becomes the villain.
Is this not an insult to those who have fallen victim to terrorism and the scores of others who have been injured and maimed that they are made to kiss the very hand that chokes their throats?
The enemy gets social approval while the ‘saviour’ is labelled as the aggressor. It is ridiculous that the government and civil society have lost this media war to the agents of death and destruction. It is time for the media to call a spade a spade.
faiz.jan@gmail.com

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