Thursday, January 26, 2006
Sands and Blizzards!
There is entirely too much print space, if that is the word I am looking for, wasted on what is called ‘celebrity gossip’. The past few weeks, the newspapers have been replete with stories about the ‘celebrity’ gay marriage, and this in an Islamic country like the UAE, where Orkut and Naseeb are banned because they are dating sites, and where when recently police raided a ‘discreet’ gay party and made arrests, it was front page news. Prior to that there was Aniston pitted against Angelina, and not very long ago you could not start your morning without finding out what Bennifer had been upto in the preceding twelve hours. Today, once again, City Times, the tabloid-cum-sports pages of Khaleej Times, thought it necessary to splash A.Jolie’s semi-naked picture on its cover, and inform us that Angelina and Brad have had success at procreation. Its the Pitts, pun intended.
I subscribe to Khaleej Times, since long ago I had decided against spending any money on Gulf News because of its inherent bias against Pakistan in its coverage. Outisde of these two publications one’s options are still quite limited when it comes to mainstream newspapers. KT used to be quite a decent publication, with a balanced approach to news coming from both sides of the Pak-India border. More than that, City Times in its good old days did not carry the extra baggage of spots news, and was indeed looked forward to because of a certain humorist’s column on its last page. Bikram Vohra, who put a smile on many a face every morning, has long since left City Times, and has been recycling his CT columns in the recently launched Evening Post.
I have continued with Khaleej Times, more out of habit than anything else. The paper has gone to the dogs. The front page induces nausea with its “Your favorite and number one paper in the UAE, Khaleej Times, this…; and your favorite and no.1 paper in the UAE, Khaleej Times, that…” stories. I had half a mind to ask our paper boy to rip off the front page before delivering the paper at our place, but then I noticed that even the stories inside were not much better either, and if we continued with the ripping strategy, we might as well ask him to shred the damn thing for us as soon as he received it. He’s a poor chap, who works really hard to make ends meet, and I did not think, he would have been able to afford a shredder, so we continued to receive the paper every morning, and I continue to shred it in our office daily. On a positive note, KT did take lead in putting the officials of government organizations under the microscope, and often imitates the western publications’ tone in its ‘fight’ to bring forth the causes of accountability, and justice. This is a favorable development, since one felt that the officials in the Government departments, and quite often the expatriates in private institutions flouted the moral, ethical, or regional norms with impunity and with the least consideration for those affected by their behavior. With KT on the prowl to report such incidents, and other publications following suit, perhaps one can expect these incidents to reduce. On the whole though, the newspapers are disappointing, especially in their choice of stories to fill up their pages.
It has often made me think, however, why do they have to fill up the paper with such riff raff. So Elton John and his gay friend got married, and I can understand the inevitability of having to report the marriage too, but who needs the intricate details of the preparations for the wedding, and the celebrity list attending the wedding, and whatever else happened there. How does it hold any importance for the people of the UAE, for it to keep propping up in the newspapers on regular basis. So, Pitt and Aniston got divorced, and found other partners, whats the big deal? Must we have their daily lives forced down our throats? And what’s with the Jude law and Miller story? One committed adultery, tendered in apologies, the other forgave; and now me thinks they are playing the same story with the roles reversed. I can understand if this were reported as news, but when it becomes the topic for discussion every day, it gets to me.
Looking at above, you could be forgiven for assuming that I keep a close watch on the celebrity gossip. You could not, however, make a more fallacious assumption. I never read celebrity gossip, yet it is so in your face all the time, so omni-present, this celebrity gossip, that you can hardly not know whats been happening. The newspaper in the morning, the magazines stacked by the cashier’s side in your area supermarket, the TV news, the radio…its everywhere.
Who are these celebrities? What makes them such celebrities? What is their claim to fame? Their art? Their talent? I do not think so. None of these news, which clutter the information highways, subways, underpasses and overpasses, are about their art or their talent. All this news is about is their homosexuality, adultery, more adultery and still more adultery. Why should a responsible paper in an Islamic country commit pages after pages in print space to these inane stories? Why can’t these stories write about real people having real issues, people who need these papers to bring their plight to the fore, so they can be helped. Why can’t these papers write about those unsung heroes who toil day and night to eek out a living, and make life worth living for others?
They say gossip sells paper. Perhaps it does too, in a society whose obsession with the individual’s right to trample over another individual’s rights has blinded it to the cause of preserving the good in a society. In an Islamic country, in an Arab country, and that too in a GCC Arab country, a newspaper ought to exercise more caution and responsibility in its choice of stories. The GCC newspaper should realize that it has to take the same pride in its own self, which an average GCC national exhibits in his own thob and gatra. The GCC paper, I strongly feel, should write about the sands and the oasis in those sands, not about the blizzards in the west; only then will there be an international entity called the GCC paper.
-->
7 Responses to 'Sands and Blizzards!'
1TariqJanuary 4th, 2006 at 3:14 am
Salaams knicq,
I agree with you. Too much riff raff.
Maybe there should be a new newspaper in the UAE?
P.S. thanks for the update on Jolie and Pitt. I didn’t know they had ’succeeded at procreation’. I guess i’m uptodate now..
In addition: A very coherent and targeted post.
2hemlockJanuary 4th, 2006 at 11:31 am
i hear ya! i hear ya! i hear ya!!!dude, gossip so does not sell paper.like, this one time at bandcamp…err, noi mean, incidently, i was in charge of the gossip page in my paper (dont ask) and for the longest time i carries this guilt over my shoulders because i felt responsible for what i was allowing to go into print… cuz ppl were reading it…so i took a stand, and cut out the trash. my ed would shout at me, i would shout back at him, tell him to do the job himself, which he obviously couldnt, so he would leave me alone until a later spasm.he. he. he.
btw: GEO is like the newest pakistani channel, BRILLIANT news coverage… hats off to them yeah?last night on GEO news:“Ashwaria Rai says 2006 will be her year”nuff said.
3knicqJanuary 5th, 2006 at 3:56 pm
Tariq: W/Salaam. I agree with your agreeing with me. There are already a couple of new papers in town, but they have their job cut out for them…and unfortunately, they are as taken with the gossip news as the ’senior’ ones. As for the update on Pitt/Jolie ’success’, I am not entirely sure whats transpiring there, but I surmised from the headline that third time lucky meant something….
Hemmie: Bravo! Thats what all these people who put in those gossip news unwillingly ought to do…I have this feeling that no-one can willingly put that crap in papers under their name…it would take a really dumb person, if ot a really sick person, to be willing to share people’s private lives with the world. But it takes a brave one…I nominate you for the knicq journalistic personality award!
Oh, and I saw that GEO brilliance in news coverage too! It was one of their headlines…!!!
The Morons!
4HappySohailJanuary 5th, 2006 at 10:21 pm
I just found out why knicq do not want us to read celebrity gossip stuff.
:D
You will figure it out after reading this excerpt from “Lie” magazine, “As per totally unreliable sources knicq was seen along with Christina Augilera at a famous night spot in Dubai…….”
5AnjumJanuary 6th, 2006 at 5:42 am
bravo, knicq - what a great, targeted post! i agree with you that gossip is so prominent that even if you’re NOT paying attention you come to find out what’s going on in these ppl’s lives. and who ARE they anyway? what have they done that we should be so interested in their every movement and thought? acted in a movie?! gimme a break..
it is sad for me though to realize that this same prevalence of gossip is found in muslim countries as it is in the usa. i had high hopes for living in a muslim country but more and more, i hear that it’s just as bad, if not worse, than here.
6knicqJanuary 6th, 2006 at 4:06 pm
Now, now Sohail…you should not believe everything you read in the “lie” magazine…as for that news, here’s my official position….”first of all, it was not me, second it was not a club, third the club was not in Dubai, and fourth it was not Chritina Aguilera but Salma Hayek in a disguise”.
Anjum: So good to have you here after so long. Sometimes, I think its all a big conspiracy…not the one that has th Hondas/Toyotas party to it, but one that has the fourth estate n cohoots with the powers that be…all this gossip is a diversion, people are conditioned to think they care, and should care about what a certain actor/actress/singer/dancer/director/etc., etc. had or did not have for break fast, so that there is no room left for the news that matter, on the front pages…so that people are not thinking about issues that matter…
If you start reporting the millions starving to death everyday around the world on those pages, sooner or later you will have people wondering about questions no-one wants raised.
Do you smell a conspiracy too?
7happysohailJanuary 6th, 2006 at 7:03 pm
Here are my 2 cents on this topic:
There are three reasons for all these gossip columns showing up everywhere.
1) Globalization and American culture (culture of tolerance) being center of it.
2) The way we do business in this day and age; we got very very marketing oriented corporate juggernauts irrespective whether they are American, European or Asian. Films and other entertainment is a big part the global economy with Hollywood being the center of it. All these gossip columns are just marketing tools. There are people who read it and enjoy it.
3) Its all about choices, I never read gossip columns. But I will never demand that it should not be there as there are people who read them and enjoy that kind of stuff. There is enough demand for that kind of journalism to make it economically viable to be printed.
Trust me if there is enough demand for other kind of newspapers that you believe should be there then they will crop up soon as its an economic opportunity not to be missed.
Conspiracy what conspiracy? Sony is Japanese company and has a big clout over Hollywood (production of movies and music). We can not say that its Japanese conspiracy to control American youth. It’s a global village and we are free to move anywhere and share anything. I have been in USA for almost 7 years now and whenever I read online or other Urdu newspapers I burst in to laughter about funny and baseless news of discrimination against Muslims in USA. I and other friends from Pakistan who came from Pakistan never felt discriminated here. Is there a conspiracy going on in Muslim world against USA too? I think newspapers print what majority of their readers will like to read.
Again I just expressed my opinion; I hope no one is angry with me after reading this.
knicq please now please do not try to get a vodoo doll for poor me and try to torture it.
Love and peace for all. ¶ 1/26/2006 02:45:00 AM
I subscribe to Khaleej Times, since long ago I had decided against spending any money on Gulf News because of its inherent bias against Pakistan in its coverage. Outisde of these two publications one’s options are still quite limited when it comes to mainstream newspapers. KT used to be quite a decent publication, with a balanced approach to news coming from both sides of the Pak-India border. More than that, City Times in its good old days did not carry the extra baggage of spots news, and was indeed looked forward to because of a certain humorist’s column on its last page. Bikram Vohra, who put a smile on many a face every morning, has long since left City Times, and has been recycling his CT columns in the recently launched Evening Post.
I have continued with Khaleej Times, more out of habit than anything else. The paper has gone to the dogs. The front page induces nausea with its “Your favorite and number one paper in the UAE, Khaleej Times, this…; and your favorite and no.1 paper in the UAE, Khaleej Times, that…” stories. I had half a mind to ask our paper boy to rip off the front page before delivering the paper at our place, but then I noticed that even the stories inside were not much better either, and if we continued with the ripping strategy, we might as well ask him to shred the damn thing for us as soon as he received it. He’s a poor chap, who works really hard to make ends meet, and I did not think, he would have been able to afford a shredder, so we continued to receive the paper every morning, and I continue to shred it in our office daily. On a positive note, KT did take lead in putting the officials of government organizations under the microscope, and often imitates the western publications’ tone in its ‘fight’ to bring forth the causes of accountability, and justice. This is a favorable development, since one felt that the officials in the Government departments, and quite often the expatriates in private institutions flouted the moral, ethical, or regional norms with impunity and with the least consideration for those affected by their behavior. With KT on the prowl to report such incidents, and other publications following suit, perhaps one can expect these incidents to reduce. On the whole though, the newspapers are disappointing, especially in their choice of stories to fill up their pages.
It has often made me think, however, why do they have to fill up the paper with such riff raff. So Elton John and his gay friend got married, and I can understand the inevitability of having to report the marriage too, but who needs the intricate details of the preparations for the wedding, and the celebrity list attending the wedding, and whatever else happened there. How does it hold any importance for the people of the UAE, for it to keep propping up in the newspapers on regular basis. So, Pitt and Aniston got divorced, and found other partners, whats the big deal? Must we have their daily lives forced down our throats? And what’s with the Jude law and Miller story? One committed adultery, tendered in apologies, the other forgave; and now me thinks they are playing the same story with the roles reversed. I can understand if this were reported as news, but when it becomes the topic for discussion every day, it gets to me.
Looking at above, you could be forgiven for assuming that I keep a close watch on the celebrity gossip. You could not, however, make a more fallacious assumption. I never read celebrity gossip, yet it is so in your face all the time, so omni-present, this celebrity gossip, that you can hardly not know whats been happening. The newspaper in the morning, the magazines stacked by the cashier’s side in your area supermarket, the TV news, the radio…its everywhere.
Who are these celebrities? What makes them such celebrities? What is their claim to fame? Their art? Their talent? I do not think so. None of these news, which clutter the information highways, subways, underpasses and overpasses, are about their art or their talent. All this news is about is their homosexuality, adultery, more adultery and still more adultery. Why should a responsible paper in an Islamic country commit pages after pages in print space to these inane stories? Why can’t these stories write about real people having real issues, people who need these papers to bring their plight to the fore, so they can be helped. Why can’t these papers write about those unsung heroes who toil day and night to eek out a living, and make life worth living for others?
They say gossip sells paper. Perhaps it does too, in a society whose obsession with the individual’s right to trample over another individual’s rights has blinded it to the cause of preserving the good in a society. In an Islamic country, in an Arab country, and that too in a GCC Arab country, a newspaper ought to exercise more caution and responsibility in its choice of stories. The GCC newspaper should realize that it has to take the same pride in its own self, which an average GCC national exhibits in his own thob and gatra. The GCC paper, I strongly feel, should write about the sands and the oasis in those sands, not about the blizzards in the west; only then will there be an international entity called the GCC paper.
-->
7 Responses to 'Sands and Blizzards!'
1TariqJanuary 4th, 2006 at 3:14 am
Salaams knicq,
I agree with you. Too much riff raff.
Maybe there should be a new newspaper in the UAE?
P.S. thanks for the update on Jolie and Pitt. I didn’t know they had ’succeeded at procreation’. I guess i’m uptodate now..
In addition: A very coherent and targeted post.
2hemlockJanuary 4th, 2006 at 11:31 am
i hear ya! i hear ya! i hear ya!!!dude, gossip so does not sell paper.like, this one time at bandcamp…err, noi mean, incidently, i was in charge of the gossip page in my paper (dont ask) and for the longest time i carries this guilt over my shoulders because i felt responsible for what i was allowing to go into print… cuz ppl were reading it…so i took a stand, and cut out the trash. my ed would shout at me, i would shout back at him, tell him to do the job himself, which he obviously couldnt, so he would leave me alone until a later spasm.he. he. he.
btw: GEO is like the newest pakistani channel, BRILLIANT news coverage… hats off to them yeah?last night on GEO news:“Ashwaria Rai says 2006 will be her year”nuff said.
3knicqJanuary 5th, 2006 at 3:56 pm
Tariq: W/Salaam. I agree with your agreeing with me. There are already a couple of new papers in town, but they have their job cut out for them…and unfortunately, they are as taken with the gossip news as the ’senior’ ones. As for the update on Pitt/Jolie ’success’, I am not entirely sure whats transpiring there, but I surmised from the headline that third time lucky meant something….
Hemmie: Bravo! Thats what all these people who put in those gossip news unwillingly ought to do…I have this feeling that no-one can willingly put that crap in papers under their name…it would take a really dumb person, if ot a really sick person, to be willing to share people’s private lives with the world. But it takes a brave one…I nominate you for the knicq journalistic personality award!
Oh, and I saw that GEO brilliance in news coverage too! It was one of their headlines…!!!
The Morons!
4HappySohailJanuary 5th, 2006 at 10:21 pm
I just found out why knicq do not want us to read celebrity gossip stuff.
:D
You will figure it out after reading this excerpt from “Lie” magazine, “As per totally unreliable sources knicq was seen along with Christina Augilera at a famous night spot in Dubai…….”
5AnjumJanuary 6th, 2006 at 5:42 am
bravo, knicq - what a great, targeted post! i agree with you that gossip is so prominent that even if you’re NOT paying attention you come to find out what’s going on in these ppl’s lives. and who ARE they anyway? what have they done that we should be so interested in their every movement and thought? acted in a movie?! gimme a break..
it is sad for me though to realize that this same prevalence of gossip is found in muslim countries as it is in the usa. i had high hopes for living in a muslim country but more and more, i hear that it’s just as bad, if not worse, than here.
6knicqJanuary 6th, 2006 at 4:06 pm
Now, now Sohail…you should not believe everything you read in the “lie” magazine…as for that news, here’s my official position….”first of all, it was not me, second it was not a club, third the club was not in Dubai, and fourth it was not Chritina Aguilera but Salma Hayek in a disguise”.
Anjum: So good to have you here after so long. Sometimes, I think its all a big conspiracy…not the one that has th Hondas/Toyotas party to it, but one that has the fourth estate n cohoots with the powers that be…all this gossip is a diversion, people are conditioned to think they care, and should care about what a certain actor/actress/singer/dancer/director/etc., etc. had or did not have for break fast, so that there is no room left for the news that matter, on the front pages…so that people are not thinking about issues that matter…
If you start reporting the millions starving to death everyday around the world on those pages, sooner or later you will have people wondering about questions no-one wants raised.
Do you smell a conspiracy too?
7happysohailJanuary 6th, 2006 at 7:03 pm
Here are my 2 cents on this topic:
There are three reasons for all these gossip columns showing up everywhere.
1) Globalization and American culture (culture of tolerance) being center of it.
2) The way we do business in this day and age; we got very very marketing oriented corporate juggernauts irrespective whether they are American, European or Asian. Films and other entertainment is a big part the global economy with Hollywood being the center of it. All these gossip columns are just marketing tools. There are people who read it and enjoy it.
3) Its all about choices, I never read gossip columns. But I will never demand that it should not be there as there are people who read them and enjoy that kind of stuff. There is enough demand for that kind of journalism to make it economically viable to be printed.
Trust me if there is enough demand for other kind of newspapers that you believe should be there then they will crop up soon as its an economic opportunity not to be missed.
Conspiracy what conspiracy? Sony is Japanese company and has a big clout over Hollywood (production of movies and music). We can not say that its Japanese conspiracy to control American youth. It’s a global village and we are free to move anywhere and share anything. I have been in USA for almost 7 years now and whenever I read online or other Urdu newspapers I burst in to laughter about funny and baseless news of discrimination against Muslims in USA. I and other friends from Pakistan who came from Pakistan never felt discriminated here. Is there a conspiracy going on in Muslim world against USA too? I think newspapers print what majority of their readers will like to read.
Again I just expressed my opinion; I hope no one is angry with me after reading this.
knicq please now please do not try to get a vodoo doll for poor me and try to torture it.
Love and peace for all. ¶ 1/26/2006 02:45:00 AM
