Who will hold the Pakistani mainstream media responsible?

Mainstream media (MSM), in any country, plays a pivotal role in not only educating the public with facts and in-depth stories, but also in forming a national narrative. Every country, whether the US, Russia or India, has its own national narrative which is based on its own realities. As is the case with people, the reality of one state may vastly differ from the reality of another state. A country’s media represents the interests of the state as well as the public opinion.

In US, the MSM is basically the establishment’s media. Outlets like the Washington Post, the New York Times, etc. are known for propagating the US establishment’s point of view. It would be fair to say that the MSM has played a major role in forming the public opinion and pushing US interests, whether you agree with their narrative and interests or not. With the emergence of President Donald Trump, who has a reputation for being anti- establishment, previously little known outlets like Breitbart and Daily Caller became the voice of the Trump White House. This partially happened because the grip of US establishment on US MSM is still quite strong.

Now enter Pakistan. Another country where the MSM is pushing the interests of an establishment.

But the question is, which establishment?

Pakistan’s establishment or a foreign establishment?

Unlike the MSM in US, the Pakistani establishment doesn’t spend a lot of money on MSM for narrative building, which is mostly due to lack of resources. Being one of the least funded militaries in the region, the Pakistani military is often subtly portrayed as the all- powerful villain in Pakistani MSM, a view adopted from foreign MSM.

But if Pakistani military was so powerful, wouldn’t it at least be able to guarantee positive coverage in the MSM?

While Pakistani establishment suffers from lack of resources, foreign establishments swoop in throwing large sums of money and lucrative packages at the Pakistani MSM. I have a famous saying, “if you won’t do it, the enemy will.” I have found this to be true so far.

Let’s take DawnLeaks, a story that attacked and maligned the Pakistani establishment, but was buried by the same Pakistani establishment for reasons. What reasons, one may ask?

For starters, the establishment knew where Panama Papers case was headed.

When Rana Sanullah recently said the JIT report was compiled in four years, and not six months, he actually had a vague point.