“Mir Shakil ur Rehman (of the Dawn and GEO you subscribe to) who reportedly claimed, “I’m the evergreen ruler of Pakistan—I can bring down a government and form a new one!”. He is the real “king maker”.”

I do not claim to know every nuance of media in Pakistan. I recant the quotation attributed to Mir Shakil ur Rehman, as it might be one-sided and untrue. He might not even be the man projected in the piece of literature at Statesmaster Encyclopaedia. It is not for me to judge or build a case without having him represented adequately, moreover I am sure you have seen many good in the man.

However, the point that was intended is higher than specific instances or personalities. The so-called “free Media”, a vital institution of a democratic system is typically instrumental in manipulating democracy itself. In any democratic system, the media eventually settles to serve the elite groups, who are able to manipulate and as Noam Chompsky puts it “Manufacture consent”.

The problem this creates in a democracy is that the leaders or governments, who too are people after all, begin to align themselves and comply with these groups who have the “public consent” and consequently the votes to get them in power to manage the affairs of the system. Thus these elite groups withdraw from the foreground and pull the strings from the behind the scenes. Put it simply, democracy gets hijacked.

Now the elite groups at the end of the day are people swayed by same lower instincts of greed and manipulative behaviour we all have, after all it is only human. As Hend pointed out in one of the other posts:

“Humans are all the same, greedy.
We want what belongs to us.
We want what belongs to others.
Given a change, we turn out to be exactly like the one’s we hate.”

So what motivates the elite groups is usually “commerce” and as James points out, none of us is immune from it. These elite groups are driven by profit and greed. Their policies or inclinations will as such be in that direction. Which direction the common man’s “manufactured consent” heads is anybody’s guess. Without digressing too much, try and get the DVD for The Corporation, you can even watch it online. I would rate this documentary as the best documentary of the 20th century, discussing the biggest problems of our times.

Values are supposed to be corrective rudder to keep a check on such malice at a macro, as well as an individual level. However what defines values too is fluid and governed by general consent (Now, I know this is going to open-up another interesting debate). Ask anyone old enough as James or Shakir, they will tell you, the values of their parents and grand parents were quite different from our times. This is obvious if you even observe the evolution of the legal system in most Western countries.

What is missing in these systems is a higher, specific value system, both at a macro level as well at an individual level. This is where religions make a difference. What fills the critical gaps in these systems is a religion that is pervasive and complete in its scope.

Let me make three points clear.

First, I am not trying to prove that Indian media is more free or Pakistan media is less free. I only responded because Shakir tends to propagate such opinions without giving any basis. Take Indian or Pakistani media they are both not free, regardless of these rating points etc. so its rather crazy to even claim one as being free-er than other. Moreover as Mohamed pointed out, media is never free, they always have an agenda decided by their owners and their clients. Let us be very clear on that.

Secondly, I am perhaps the worst critic of Indian media which includes names like Time of India, NDTV etc. A simple word to describe them is ‘rabid’. They have no ethics and they are totally in gutters. I personally feel that Pakistan media is ‘comparatively’ decent but in any case I will not vouch for any media from anywhere, they are fakes.

Lastly take any media, Indian or Pakistani, they are extremely biased. Not only against each other but even within the country against different sections based on their political and commercial agendas. The feed people with selective and twisted stories.

All of us must realize this and not trust the media blindly because they are like vultures who will lead you to a predator and wolves who would pretend to be a dog.

( copy and paste the link http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:ReportersWithoutBorders2008PressFreedomRankings_Map.svg )

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:ReportersWithoutBorders2008PressFreedomRankings_Map.svg

and this

http://photius.com/rankings/freedomofthepress2008.html

and this…scroll down or use search to look for Pakistan and In@$%

http://www.worldaudit.org/presstable.html

lol

“Paying your employees” is ok, as long as you don’t employ democratically elected governments. The people in a democracy imagine the government and bureaucrats are “public servants”, they might feel offended if their government has an external master. Which inevitably would result in conflict of interest and the people might want to yell back “for heaven’s sake this is a democracy! Please respect it!”

@Shakir:
Read Pakistani English language newspapers (”The News” & “DAWN”, they’re available online) and read how we criticize our government leaders and bureaucrats. This kind of freedom is not available to people in most Muslim countries (except perhaps Turkey). Even the Indian media is not as free as ours is.

You are right in pointing to the power of the media. However, that’s how it works in a democracy. Take the upcoming UK elections for example, there is little hope for Gordon Brown’s labour party after Media Mogul Rupert Murdoch’s tabloid SUN defected them, ending a 12-year-long support:

- “Doggedly, Mr Brown stuck to a prepared line that it was the people who decided elections, not newspapers”.
- “Later, in a BBC interview, Mr Brown again shrugged off The Sun’s defection, but his irritation was clear.”
reports Times Online

The same is the case in Pakistan, where Mir Shakil ur Rehman (of the Dawn and GEO you subscribe to) who reportedly claimed, “I’m the evergreen ruler of Pakistan—I can bring down a government and form a new one!”. He is the real “king maker”.

“It is estimated the 80 percent of newspaper readers read Mir Shakil ur Rahman’s publications and a majority of the public watches his TV and radio channels. Thus he is thought to be the strongest person in Pakistan. He is said to be the wealthiest and most influential person in the country as well…”
- Statemaster Encyclopaedia

Typically, the elite rule the corporations and the media. America is not any different; to get to the helm of power any group has to struggle to get a grip over the media. See Who rules America?

We are living in a time when people are heavily indoctrinated by what Noam Chomsky calls “Manufactured Consent”. Noam Chomsky says it best when he describes the propaganda model:

“Now the elite media are sort of the agenda-setting media. That means The New York Times, The Washington Post, the major television channels, and so on. They set the general framework. Local media more or less adapt to their structure.

And they do this in all sorts of ways: by selection of topics, by distribution of concerns, by emphasis and framing of issues, by filtering of information, by bounding of debate within certain limits. They determine, they select, they shape, they control, they restrict — in order to serve the interests of dominant, elite groups in the society.”
- Noam Chomsky interviewed by various interviewers

The people believe in set of beliefs that they are indoctrinated with, by the elite power groups and their media.

See also:
- The Sun sets on Britain’s PM Gordon Brown
- Who really rules America? Vanity Fair’s Top 100' seems to confirm age-oldcanards’ about `Jewish power’ - By Michael Collins Piper