ALTERNATIVE MEDIA UPSTAGES LAMESTREAM PAKISTANI MEDIA IN COVERAGE OF ISLAMABAD PROTESTS
One of the most extraordinary stories in the history of Pakistani politics has been taking place for the past 3 weeks as citizens have begun rising up against the corrupt status quo.
An historical showdown between protesters of PTI & PAT wanting real democracy, electoral reforms and an end to massive corruption has unfolded in Islamabad led by Imran Khan and Tahir ul Qadri. Both announced they were taking a stand against the federal government and the corrupt status quo, who take turns looting the country.
While on the lamestream (sold) Pakistani media, the showdown has “ended in a failure”, the reality is this has been nothing but a complete victory for Citizens of Pakistan versus government tyranny. An awakening has occurred throughout the country and the seeds of change have been planted.
The status quo on the other hand are in complete panic mode and have effectively surrendered by having to buy out the media in a last ditch effort to pass these protests off as nothing more than a small fringe of “angry extremists”. Nothing could be farther from the truth!
The lamestream Pakistani media was ORDERED to ignore these protests and to ridicule it at all costs – some complied while some did not. Of particular interest, PTV, Geo (Jang) and Dawn have seem to have taken the side of the government while ARY has decided to back the protests. Some media outlets have decided to stay neutral like Samaa and Express (even though the latter tends to lean towards the government).
What’s so astonishing about all this is that the lamestream media seems to have dispatched zero reporters to the actual scene and went to great lengths to downplay the reality of the situation as it unfolded. GEO in particular did this and even went as far as to say those protesting were “terrorists”. In doing this, the media (especially Jang) lost massive credibility with the Pakistani public, because it’s now clear there was a directive — almost certainly from the Prime Minister’s Office — that commanded media organisations to ignore the story or spin it with outright lies.
Meanwhile, alternative media — citizen journalists, Facebook users, Twitter users, PTI and PAT livestream — made history by broadcasting live video from protests, posting video updates every few hours and conducting interviews with protesters themselves.
More importantly, alternative media actually helped shape the story by spreading the call for citizens to join the effort while simultaneously appealing for calm. It was this massive citizen response — powered by activists sharing stories across the ‘net — that ultimately led to panic in the government.
What’s really clear in all this is that the the lamestream Pakistani media just embarrassed itself beyond belief while simultaneously losing huge numbers of viewers. GEO was covering the protests with a blindfold it seems while independent social media users were on the scene broadcasting live reports to the country.
What did the lamestream media do in the meantime? They snoozed on the job and lost viewers and readers en masse because they refused to cover this historical, groundbreaking story. Readers, viewers and fans leapt to alternative media sources in record numbers, and many are still scratching their heads, wondering why Dawn or respected journalists like Talat Hussain didn’t give this story the accurate coverage it clearly deserved. (Answer: They are no longer real news organisations. They are propaganda outlets for corporate and government interests.)
In fact, it was alternative media — with the relentless help dedicated and patriotic people who tweeted, posted and shared the stories and videos — that drove this story into the consciousness of the Pakistani people and has resulted in an awakening that nobody saw coming.
The bottom line is that the lamestream Pakistani media thinks you are incredibly stupid and will buy anything they say, no matter how illogical or irrational it might be. What the alternative media has now proven is that the lamestream media is largely irrelevant. It matters nothing what they print or broadcast. The people who are informed know it’s all lies, and the mind-numbed propaganda victims who still watch shows on GEO and read Express Tribune are irrelevant to the march of history anyway.
Real history is being shaped, investigated and reported by the alternative media. We are the ones who have no big sponsors and no million-Rupee budgets, but we have the hearts and minds and passion for truth and justice that drives our work to levels of authenticity that the lamestream Pakistani media can never hope to attain…regardless of production budgets.
For once-grand institutions of news reporting like Dawn News and Jang, the era of honest journalism conducted in the public interest is a long-faded shadow. Today, lamestream media exists solely to catapult corporate/government propaganda and fill the minds of the Pakistani people with disheartening useless drivel as a distraction from the real story.
If lamestream Pakistani news organisations don’t change, they will continue to plummet in viewership and revenues. Already, GEO — owned by a tax evader and Taliban funder Mir Jaffar Khalil ur Rehman — is a pathetic shadow of a failed news organisation. GEO News seems to discredits itself by the hour while ARY consistently steals its market share and gains ground with viewers.
We (the alternative media) do what we do out of sheer passion alone, without any huge contracts, corporate sponsors or publicity agents. We report the truth for the only reason under which journalism should ever be practiced in the first place: because the People have the right to know what’s happening in the world around them. And it’s the alternative media that now appears to have the exclusive credibility to bring it to them.
Truth be told, alternative media and the people of this country have won in this latest battle. While the war still goes on, we’re closer today to changing this country than ever before.
