Sense doesn’t sell

You don’t have to be schooled in the art of seduction to understand the power of words. If used well, words can crawl under your skin and lead to a new level of understanding or lack thereof. You don’t have to go to law school to realise that the words we use powerfully shape thoughts, attitudes and reactions.
A group of people who should be able to relate to this understanding of the power of words are journalists. With the booming growth in the electronic/print media in Pakistan, our journalists have been presented with a remarkable opportunity to use words responsibly and to shape a constructive debate in Pakistan. While a minority contributes through brilliant writing and argumentation to lift our wretched souls, an overwhelming majority (particularly in the electronic media) just refuses to argue about anything in a constructive way.
Making sense is not just about being logical. It is also an exercise in self-restraint—those in the business of using words for a living know rhetoric too. And rhetoric sells. I would have had no issue if a large chunk of our electronic media just said that they were in a business selling rhetoric. That sounds just fine as long as they stop acting in a self-righteous manner by pretending that the majority of them are fighting some great battle for our rights. They are not. I say this because the rights of the consumers of the media include not being misled or deceived. Yet this is done every day for hours on our networks.
Take the recently passed budget for example. My good friend-with-a-broken-foot-these-days once rightly said about budgets and governments: ‘Damned if you do, damned if you don’t’. The electronic media started running stories and discussions about the budget hours before it was presented. The area of focus? ‘Oh and there is nothing to help the common man’. This common man, by the way, who (according to the media) is so desperately looking forward to some relief in the Annual Budget, is a most elusive entity.
The ‘common man’ it turned out was a group of disgruntled employees returning home in the sweltering summer heat with a microphone shoved in their face. Either that or the blissfully ignorant busy-buying-lawn ladies who shook their heads and missed the good old days when budget speeches were not useless (maybe even lawn was cheaper?). All that was followed by a discussion among so-called experts/anchors who lamented gross contradictions in the same breath. For instance, they would bemoan how GST was only cut down by one percent and would also point to the low tax revenues. Would they advocate higher taxes or would they deem the low tax-to-GDP ratio a more pressing concern? Questions not asked since rhetoric is the marijuana keeping everyone blissfully high. On subsidies, the ‘expert’ anchors pointed to the ones withdrawn and lamented a higher cost. At the same time they discussed the budget deficit and debt-to-GDP ratio as if the issue had no correlation to subsidies.
Subsidies are a difficult and politically sensitive issue. Consider those for the power sector. There is firstly the question of keeping the electorate happy (rising electricity bills will hurt the party in power) and more importantly the quality of life of those who cannot pay the efficient cost will significantly go down — at least in the short term. And a sub-continental summer is a cruel short term. I am not taking a stance on subsidies but what I am talking about is the deliberate manipulation by the media to ignite wrath against the government. It is the right of the people of Pakistan to know the pros and cons involved. This same media largely remained silent when last year the Lahore High Court ‘fixed’ the price of sugar — an Order that was not interfered with by the Supreme Court. What happened to the principles of a free market then? The media laments the state that the PIA and Pakistan Railways are in but cries itself hoarse each time there is talk of privatisation. Forget implementation, the mere discussion of many hard solutions is anathema to these people. Solutions are not the media’s job but a dishonest argument is dishonesty itself. Pure and simple.
Mushroom growth in any sector will attract market entrants that thrive on the ridiculous. Well, the ridiculous is on our TV screens now — every night. And the US Supreme Court once rightly noted that a free press is not necessarily a fair press. This is not an argument for curtailing the freedom of the media — but this freedom carries a responsibility to keep the people informed. To not deceive them and to tell them that rising food and oil prices are pinching people everywhere and that since most of us evade taxes, the government does not have cash to throw around.
The people need to be told that politicians make hard choices when deciding ‘how much goes where’ and that cheaper electricity would not mean electricity for all. We live in odd times. Walking around with a camera and a microphone is far easier than sitting down and talking sense. Reason is dying a slow death in our midst and we can hardly hear it breathing its last in the harsh noise.

The writer is a Barrister of Lincoln’s Inn and practices in Lahore. He has a special interest in Anti-trust / Competition law. He can be reached at [email protected]