The last ten years have witnessed a phenomenal boom in an electronic media. We had only a few news channels until 1999 but by the turn of the decade we have access to over fifty news channels of local and English languages in addition to numerous entertainment channels. The internet too came of age with popular websites like Facebook, Twitter and YouTube. These news channels and other websites make sure that no news goes unheard or unseen by any person. It is good in a way that the news and information stay on our finger tips and we can keep ourselves informed all the time through one medium or the other but if you regularly watch a news channel an hour a day and have the habit of browsing through daily newspapers and weekly magazines online and above all you are a regular user of a couple of social networking sites then you feel being pushed to the limits of endurance with the repetition of same stuff over and over again.

Since September 11, 2001, the words like ‘terrorism’, ‘Al-Qaida’, terrorist’, ‘Muslims’, ‘Islam’ ‘Taliban’, ‘Pakistan’, ‘Afghanistan’, ‘Iraq’, troops’, ‘war on terror’ have become the most used terms by the media. Among the cacophony of those rather grim and overused terms, once in a while breaks the story that captures people’s attention and keep them hooked to it like there is no tomorrow. Like every gone by year, 2009, also left a trail of such stories that satisfied people’s need for gossip, satiated their quench for entertainment and kept them on the edge of their seats for hours as the story unfolded and false promises by those in power raised false hopes that many preferred to cling to; as they believe something was better than nothing. But there was only one problem, all such stories were overrated.

For the political pundits and ordinary people (read that Muslims) the high time was when President Obama delivered his much anticipated speech at Cairo in June 2009. Many thought it to be the beginning of a new era in Muslim-America relations while some took the speech with a grain of salt believing that Obama’s peace overture would finally be dud. It was that speech which made him won the Noble Peace Prize. But the fact is that six months after his speech, the Palestine-Israel issue is as worse as it was. The wars in Iraq and Afghanistan are far from over. While the lesser partner in war on terror, Pakistan, choked economically and is bleeding to death. Then came a blow packed in rhetorical assurances, when Obama announced the increase of troops to Afghanistan. People were expecting the withdrawal of forces instead. Perhaps people failed to calculate that how overrated the entire Cairo speech was. They need to learn that it is common in political arena to make promises that are never fulfilled.

For the gossip mongers the gossip of the year was the disclosure of Tiger Woods’ fourteen mistresses. No one had imagined that the world’s number one golfer would have a secret penchant for strippers, porn stars and bar girls. The entire overrated drama of Tiger Woods had kicked off with the ‘breaking’ news of his car crash on 27^th November, 2009. All the media networks reported it as a ‘serious’ accident. People got scared that they were about to lose their favorite sportsperson to death. In a few hours the clearer picture emerged. He had only sustained minor scratches in that ‘serious’ car crash. In days to come his pristine image took a blow when The National Enquirer, revealed the stories of Woods’ promiscuousness. It’s been over two months but Wood’s name still echoes in the media in connection with his mistresses or being dropped from endorsements by different companies etc. I can’t fathom why anyone would be interested to know who he is sleeping with. The world need to give Tiger Woods a break. Really!

In June 2009 the entire Pakistani electronic media went berserk on discovering Jinnah’s long lost maternal great grandson, Aslam Jinnah, living in poverty in the dilapidated Karachi apartment. The great grandson, who looked like a forgotten tale of an ancient book had appealed to the government through media that he should be given monthly allowances. Following the footsteps of an Indian government (remember they had given jobs and relief to the heirs of the last Mughal emperor, Bahadur Shah Zafar) Pakistan government too showed benevolence and helped the distraught family. Aslam Jinnah along with his family was flown to Islamabad on special invitation. They met with the President and Prime Minister and came back home with perks and privileges. The question is that was he even Jinnah’s relative let alone great grandson. The media harped on the poignant tales of the distressed family’s misery but no one tried to prove the family’s kinship with Jinnah. Jinnah’s only daughter Dina Wadia was married to a Parsi in Bombay. She had a son and a daughter. Her son Nusli Wadia has two sons; they are Jinnah’s great grandsons, called Jeh Wadia and Ness Wadia – the same man who dated Indian movie actor Priety Zinta. That was the most annoying, misrepresented and overrated news item!

It was one fine autumn day in 2009 when CNN, yes, you read it correct, CNN broke the news of a Colorado boy who had been accidently flown away in a home-made helium balloon. After flying at 7,000 feet altitude for more than 50 miles the balloon landed sans the six years old boy. An extensive man hunt began fearing the boy might have been fallen off the balloon. Later that afternoon, it was learned that the boy was hiding in his house all that time. Soon it dawned upon everyone that the boy’s parents had successfully pulled off a hoax which attracted the media attention from all over the world and kept people glued to their screens for hours. Later in the criminal investigation, the boy’s father and mother pleaded guilty and were punished with 90 days and 20 days imprisonment respectively, four years of supervised probation for the father and $11,000 fine. Hopefully the media might have learned a lesson and be careful to differentiate between genuine stories and hoaxes next time.  

And like all the previous years, the popularity and craze of overrated Indian soaps didn’t diminish a bit this past year either. I wonder what’s so special about those ‘saas-bahu’ sagas that keep women hooked through and through. One of the irritating questions that I have been often asked is that do I watch these soaps. When I say no, the exclamations and sighs begin to pour as if I am missing something of cardinal importance. I often think why people I socialize with never ask me that do I read Garcia, Dostoevsky, Neruda or Faiz. The women folk (at least the one I come across) are more into soaps than the literature. Some of those soaps have been running from eight-nine years. I envy the fact because in those nine years I lost quite a few relationships and friendships. How long-running these soaps are; how short-lived my relationships have been! Irony!

  Author: Ayesha Umer