Daily Times

I was shocked for a moment that night, as I listened to the renowned anchorperson on television casually calling Barack Obama an extension of the Republican Party, incautiously displaying his misconceptions about the internal politics of the Unites States without any sign of remorse as if it was no big deal. But, in fact, it was a big deal: it was preposterous, to say the least. (I do intend to say much more later.) In a state of denial, I decided to replay the programme again and then again to recheck and reconfirm if I was hearing it correctly. In the internet programme recording, exactly at 12 minutes and 45 seconds he had said, “…Americans are not going to agree, Republicans don’t agree, and that Obama…umm…is also an extension of the Republican Party…”

Honestly, I could not imagine that Barack Hussein Obama, the current president of the United States and the Democratic Party nominee for the 2012 presidential election, was secretively but definitely ‘an extension of the Republican Party’. If this was the case, it must have been highly ‘classified’ information, leaked only to a well-reputed and internationally recognised journalist, by a source high up in the White House, relying upon him with his own life to keep the news discreet and disclose it only when the iron is hot.

Unfortunately, this top-level of access was denied to, and the story was missed by, some of the most resourceful journalists of the United States. I was disappointed when Bob Woodward (sorry Bob!) — The Washington Post analyst who broke the story of the Watergate scandal against President Nixon — could not get hold of the story in time. I was equally disturbed when it was not disclosed by Seymour M Hersh (you missed it, Sy) — The New Yorker magazine contributor who informed us for the first time about the torture at the Abu Ghraib prison. But at the same time, I am so proud to reveal that the credit for such an extraordinary disclosure goes to a Pakistani anchorperson, the only journalist on earth who shared this news with the world while conducting a recent interview with the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf Chairman Imran khan, on a major news channel in Pakistan.

No, the (in)famous and ‘exclusively-informed’ anchor person was not under the influence of any substance — at least, he did not sound like one and that is all I can tell — nor did he (un)intentionally misspeak. No, it was not a Freudian slip, nor was it a rhetorical question with a twist of satire in it. It was a loud and clear statement, a declaration of hidden truth; or probably a ‘divine revelation’ for the ‘stupid’ people of Pakistan like us to believe in. The anchorperson sounded convinced and comfortable with his assertion; his body language, his command on the subject or the tone of his voice, nothing suggested any ambiguity in his stance. What makes the story even better (or bigger or worse) is the impenitence with which such an unconceivable statement was made.

Not unexpectedly, his statement was not questioned by the guest; the anchor’s organisation has ignored it and so far has not rebuked him on this matter, and clearly, there has been no self-initiative to explicate the issue either. In the best-case scenario, even if he is compelled to explain the validity of his assertion, he still does not need to bring any objective evidence to support his claim in Pakistan. Just garbling a strong rhetoric with an emotional undertone would suffice any such demand; and would be enough to prove his point to the masses. I believe an explanation of something in these lines would work perfectly: since Barack Obama speaks English like his Republican counterparts, he is also an extension of the Republican Party. If this sounds overly simplistic, we can try another and a more sophisticated one: since Barack Obama has continued the war on terror like his Republican predecessor, he must also be an extension of the Republican Party. And in the end, the most intelligent attempt that could convince everyone, including the hard core sceptics would sound something like this. It is clear that all the major foreign policy decisions made by the United States are dictated by the ‘Zionist Lobby’ in America, which has closely aligned itself with the Republican Party outlook of the world; and because all the Presidents follow the same script handed over to them by the same ‘hawks’ in the intelligence agencies. We can ‘easily’ conclude Barack Obama is really an extension of the Republican Party.

In response, a reasonably informed and even marginally intelligent person like most of us (and unlike the genius in front of the camera), is only be left with two choices: either to laugh on the carelessness of the journalist and ignore it; or to call it what it is: ludicrous. I know it is harsh and I must apologise; yet, as harsh as it sounds, it still falls short and does not justify the extent of heedlessness displayed by the ‘informed’ journalist regarding Barack Obama’s political affiliations or the rivalry between the two mainstream parties in the United States. But, we have been given so many doses of similar inanities over the last few years that our system has now completely been desensitised to protest. We have developed immunity to express our outrage; our minds are numb and ready to accept any nonsensical statement like this one. We have really turned out to be the living example of the extreme of ‘freedom of speech’ gone bad. It should not have shocked me either, which means I must need some more courses on intellectual desensitisation. I should merely watch his programmes more often.

The writer is a US-based freelance columnist and can be reached at skamranhashmi@gmail.com