The Dark Side of News Fixing: The Culture and Political Economy of Global Media in Pakistan and Afghanistan

242 Pages·2021·20.888 MB·English

by  Syed Irfan Ashraf

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The Dark Side of News Fixing
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The Dark Side of News Fixing

The Culture and Political Economy of
Global Media in Pakistan and Afghanistan
Syed Irfan Ashraf
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Anthem Press
An imprint of Wimbledon Publishing Company
www.anthempress.com
This edition first published in UK and USA 2022
by ANTHEM PRESS
75– 76 Blackfriars Road, London SE1 8HA, UK
or PO Box 9779, London SW19 7ZG, UK
and
244 Madison Ave #116, New York, NY 10016, USA
Copyright © Syed Irfan Ashraf 2022
The author asserts the moral right to be identified as the author of this work.
All rights reserved. Without limiting the rights under copyright reserved above,
no part of this publication may be reproduced, stored or introduced into
a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means
(electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise),
without the prior written permission of both the copyright
owner and the above publisher of this book.
British Library Cataloguing- in- Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.
Library of Congress Control Number: 2021946495
ISBN- 13: 978- 1- 83998- 137- 1 (Hbk)
ISBN- 10: 1- 83998- 137- 7 (Hbk)
Cover credit: Covering the mountains of war-torn Afghanistan
and Pakistan, a site for the Hunt for Bin Laden.
This title is also available as an e- book.
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For Ayesha, my daughter.
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CONTENTS

List of Figures xi
About the Author xiii
Acknowledgments xv
Introduction 1
The Local Relations of Global News Production 3
The “Fixer”: Marx’s Proletarian 5
The Local Journalist: The Three- Tier News Production Model 8
Methodological and Theoretical Applications 11
Outline of the Book 13
Chapter One Laying Bare the Malala Story: Some Tough and Painful
Reflections on the “Fixer” Role 17
Molvi and Malala: The Story of Swat 18
The Destruction of Schools: Taliban Reviving Colonial
Tradition 21
What If the Documentary Wins an Award? 24
Neoliberal Logic: Local Violence, Global Messiah 26
Did the NYT Put Malala in Harm’s Way? 28
Faceless Wars? Of Course Not 29
A “Fixer”: An Emotional Labor in Corporate Media 30
The “Fixer’s” Reflexive Experience: An Overview 35
Conclusion 37
Chapter Two The “Fixer”: Journalism’s Dark Secret 39
“Fixer”: Anatomical Metaphors and Subjugation 40
Global News Production: Changing Dynamics 41
The Parachute Journalist and the “Fixer”: A New Labor
Formation 43
Global News Production: International Journalist, Local
Proletarian 45
Precarious Labor: Consumer Markets and Flexible Labor 47
The Ideal Labor and the Terror “Enterprise” 48
Materiality of the Local Body: An Overview 50
The “Fixer”: A Hyper- Precarious Existence 53
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Chapter Three Pashtuns as Potential “Fixers”: News Work in a State of War 55
Imperialist Games: Stateless Existence 56
Local Journalism in Colonized Space 59
Frontline State: Neoimperialism, Ethnicity and Media 61
Return of the Great Game: Media in Frontline State 64
The National Media: Local News Production 65
History Matters: Pashtuns under British Colonialism 67
Local Journalists Caught in a State of Global War 70
Conclusion 71
Chapter Four The Afghan Beat: Journalism as War 73
The Afghan Jihad: The Zia Era 75
Struggle against State Oppression 77
Imperialist War: Reporting Empowers the Disempowered 79
District Reporters: War, Solidarity and Social Exclusion 83
Capitalism and Jihad: Extremism at Large 86
A Seismic Shift in Local Journalism 88
Pashtun Reporters: Workers in the Imperialist Tradition 91
Domesticated Resistance 92
Strategic Depth Theory: Military Fallacy or Total War? 94
Conclusion 95
Chapter Five The “Fixer”: Local Labor, Global Media 97
Media Circus and al- Qaida’s Escape 98
The Pashtun Belt in the Grip of the War Frenzy 99
“Fixers”: Children of a Lesser God 100
How Did Local Reporters Become “Fixers”? 100
“Fixer”: A Key to Local Knowledge Network 103
Unethical Journalism: News Practices 105
Tabloid Press/ Journalism 107
Shuttling between Supply and Demand Reporting 108
“Fixer” Field Position: Logistical or Editorial Labor? 109
Structural Compulsions: Working Precariously 111
“Fixer”: The Contradiction of Capital 113
News “Fixing”: Daily Wage Journalism 116
Chapter Six Buying Low, Selling High: The Hunt for Bin Laden 117
The US Attack: Bin Laden— the Terror Prince 118
The District Reporters’ Hunt for al- Qaida 119
Post-attack Pack Journalism: Hunting for al- Qaida News 120
The Tora Bora Fiasco 123
Chance: The Canon of Conflict Reporting 125
The Shifting Relations of News Production 131
On- Demand Reporting 134