Has the good doctor hit a dead end?

 JournalismPakistan.com |  Published June 08, 2012 |  The Communicator

KARACHI: He’s changed jobs more often in the past few years than some people change their underwear in a week and now all the signs point to yet another exit for the ‘good doctor’, the one and only Shahid Masood.

It seems that Shahid, who is a consultant at the Express Media Group and host of the talk show Shahid Nama, has not only made the Express management unhappy with his insistence on doing programs that do not conform to with the group’s policies, but also for not delivering on program ratings.

Shahid Nama has lagged behind other talk shows and it is not because nobody watches Express News TV. The doctor has done little more than revisit some of his favorite myopic topics and that, in anybody’s book, is just not on. Not to mention he keeps on stoking the ire of the establishment and, say what you will about free media,  but that too is not on, especially if you look at it from the management’s point of view.

Shahid has had a long and controversial history of doing things his way, frequently bulldozing all those who would dare to argue with him, including the poor support staff at four different channels. This would be fine, if for once, he made sense. His hysterical and apoplectic ranting not only borders on the ludicrous but is also hard on the ears. Worse still, he seems to suffer from some sort of speech disorder that makes him quite undecipherable. He blubbers and I’m not being rude. He does.

Back in the middle of May this year the grapevine had it that Express News had already issued the doctor his marching papers. This turned out to be untrue and as of today Shahid is still there, albeit said to be hanging on by the skin of his teeth. The last Shahid Nama was telecast on April 28. It just remains to be seen how many more if any will be forthcoming.

Somehow, Express News has been better at retaining its staff than other channels during a turbulent period during which some pretty big names from Samaa, Dunya and DawnNews have been doing the rounds. Shahid has not only managed to test the Lakhani’s patience to the limit but has abused their goodwill. It’s not long now, insiders say.

If Shahid is on his way out then it could very well be the end of the line for him. It seems he has exhausted whatever little goodwill or respect anybody bore towards him. His credibility is shot. There is only so much a channel will tolerate when he takes it upon himself to get involved in and to manufacture controversies where none exist. His strange, almost radical ideological strain of reasoning is not interesting or amusing anymore. Indeed, it has become downright ugly and boring.

News channels would be better off blooding in new faces and opinions. It would not only cost less but would generate fresh interest and bump up those all-important ratings. Indeed they could hire 10 anchors for what they pay Shahid. Maybe even more.

“He’s not worth the money,” says a younger analyst, “He’s a ‘has been’; his sell-by-date is long expired. It’s time others took over. New blood with alternative views instead of his ghissa-pitta rona (outdated and worn out wailings) is the way forward. The world has changed since 9/11. Dr. Shahid seems to be stuck in a time warp.”

Indeed Pakistan has changed and continues to change. The dynamics of almost everything has changed. If one is to live in the past, then what becomes of today and tomorrow? This important matter has apparently managed to elude DrShahid.

It is a time to be realistic and the media in Pakistan has a responsibility to make that happen. We cannot and should not be part of the surrealistic web that Shahid has slickly woven in the past.

To begin with, this man was not a journalist when ARY cast him onto the scene back in 2001. Making the most of the opportunity Shahid managed to seduce a viewership there for the taking. His program, Views on News ran for six years, a record. Just goes to show how gullible a nation devoid of education and political awareness can be.

By the time Shahid joined Geo in 2007 for no other reason than a bigger pay packet he had almost taken on a savior-like persona. He was the cat’s whiskers and tail too. His egoistic need was fuelled and fed further by the very name of his program, Meray Mutabiq (According to me). The stress on that most vain word ‘ME’ should have been indication enough that this was a man on a monumental ego trip and we all know where those end.

We missed all the signs. We let him grow into the Frankenstein’s monster he evolved into. We turned a blind eye and deaf ear to his ‘opinions’. His opinions… Meray Mutabiq!! How could we let this happen?

We were the culprits. All this business about him being patriotic was a whole lot of baloney. Some of his directionless diatribes, if heeded seriously, could have landed Pakistan in the ditch, especially when his worship extends only to money.

I hate to say this, but purely from a journalist’s point of view thank God he was banned from time to time and was unable to do more damage to Pakistan than even Musharraf did.

By the time Musharraf went, Shahid was thriving again and was rewarded with the ultimate feather in the cap; he was made chairman of the state television, the good old PTV. But due to his stance on a certain sensitive audit report he resigned and later was appointed as Advisor to Prime Minister with the status of Federal Minister. Just goes to show power and money go hand in glove.

The world was at his feet and Shahid knew it.

It was also about this time the truth about the good doctor started to leak out. It began to snowball with such rapidity that Shahid was happy to find his way back to Geo. More bans followed and one particular show sparked an attack on the Geo offices in Karachi. He’s good at inciting violence, he is.

Regressing further, Shahid, tail between his legs, wriggled his way back to ARY and continued from where he had left off with Views on News and of course more of the same old same old. As luck would have it he ran into the establishment again and for a while was ‘homeless’ before Express TV helped him out.

Now that too is in the doldrums.

Perhaps that is why he recently showed up on Dunya TV’s Khari Baat hosted by Mubashar Lucman and not representing anybody, just as an analyst.

If the time has come to bid adieu to Shahid, it would also be fitting if we could do the same for a couple of others. The time has come for them to go on a pilgrimage…not only have they lost credibility, but are getting a bit long in the tooth.

(The Communicator is a senior Karachi-based journalist)
 

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