New Talk-Show Stars | Pakistan Press Foundation (PPF)

Pakistan Press Foundation

New Talk-Show Stars

Pakistan Press Foundation

Former President and Co-Chairman of the PPP Asif Ali Zardari, has managed to grab the attention of the masses and he will appear on a local private TV channel weekly on his own talk show as a political analyst. The career in media is another attention seeking gimmick, as the PPP prepares itself for election year.

Earlier, he was in self-imposed exile for almost 18 months when the paramilitary forces launched an operation in Sindh. Political leadership seems to be a part-time affair for the PPP leader. Bilawal Bhutto, in the meantime, tried gaining some ground to revive the party not just in Sindh but in Punjab as well. However, revival of PPP in politics is just limited to voter outcome with no intellectual core or ideological drive.

Thus Mr Zardari’s new talk show comes off as a desperate stunt, just like Mr Pervez Musharraf similarly hosting a show seems like a bored old politician attempting to stay relevant. There will be no real harm done by these two to the thinking of the masses, but the trend is not something that needs to be encouraged. At the core of it, the job of experts or journalists is being given to power hungry politicians who will use their time slots for nothing else but propaganda in their party’s favour. They are not journalists, and their arguments will never be unbiased or objective. The TV channels they will appear on do not create these shows to provide the public with a better picture of the truth, but to use controversy to increasing ratings. It is tantamount to misleading the public, or at the least confusing them – something that does not fit well with journalistic integrity and the search for truth through investigation.

The Nation