The new balance of power is apparently still lost on the media honchos giving space and airtime to hypocrisy, lies and slanted truths. Death by a thousand cuts has decimated superpowers. If they do not heed the audience, death by 140 characters (on Twitter) is the equaliser that could seal the fate of the traditional media dinosaurs running the show.
Source/Credit: Daily Times | Pakistan
By Dr Mohammad Taqi | August 18, 2011
The man, who claims to be imbued with love for Prophet Mohammad (PBUH), is seen and heard uttering profanities while getting ready to recite and explain one of the most revered eulogies (qaseedah) of the Prophet Mohammad (PBUH). But that is not it. The ‘humanist’ seemed to be making light of a hypothetical question from a caller asking if suicide is permissible for a woman in imminent danger of rape
“You don’t own the eyeballs. You don’t own the press, which is now divided into pro and amateur zones. You don’t control production on the new platform, which isn’t one-way. There’s a new balance of power between you and us” — ‘The People Formerly Known as the Audience’, Professor Jay Rosen……
This past weekend, a YouTube video of a self-declared religious scholar (Dr Aamir Liaquat Hussain) went viral over the contemporary media. The gentleman is not a nonentity — at least not to himself. His own website introduces him as “truly a legend of this modern age. A man of many qualities, prominent scholar who possesses a pleasing disposition, veteran journalist whose name becomes synonymous with truthfulness and bravery in the field of journalism, prolific columnist whose articles inspire his readers, a famous Naat Khawan whom Allah Almighty gifted a melodious voice. But above all he is a learned person and a true lover of Prophet Mohammad (PBUH) and even his adversaries acknowledged this fact…he raised his voice against those who violated humanistic values…he exposed double standards of this Hippocratic [sic] society.”
If the montage of clips, apparently put together from the ‘dailies’ (raw footage of a programme or film) recorded before, during and after his assorted religious programmes, is authentic, this ‘true legend of the modern age’ has been taking millions of viewers for a ride via the traditional tele-media. The man, who claims to be imbued with love for Prophet Mohammad (PBUH), is seen and heard uttering profanities while getting ready to recite and explain one of the most revered eulogies (qaseedah) of the Prophet Mohammad (PBUH). But that is not it. The ‘humanist’ seemed to be making light of a hypothetical question from a caller asking if suicide is permissible for a woman in imminent danger of rape. The irony reminded one of Hafiz Shirazi’s verse:
“Wa’izaan k’een jalwa der mehrab-o-mimber mikunand, Choon ba khilwat mirawand aan kaar e deegar mikunand.” (The religious preachers who show their glory on the pulpit under the arch of the mosque, Indulge in different things when they retire to their privacy — translation by Ali Sardar Jafri.)
The said televangelist, speaking on his current television show, has since impugned the authenticity of the video and has claimed that the clip had been fabricated by way of editing and dubbing to malign him by other channels and jealous people. Maybe so. Moreover, in biometrics, voice authentication is already an established tool, along the lines of fingerprinting, available to forensic scientists to confirm identity.
Watch a video clip below Start from TIME 10.25:
Find part: 2 of the video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qsSZ3R-oC9E&feature=related
Categories: Pakistan
This is hypocrisy!
To have two images; a public and a private 9real) one has become a norm of this time.