Pak TV talk shows most watched programmes, claims Hillary’s email

WASHINGTON: Former secretary of state and strong candidate of US presidential election Hillary Clinton’s leaked emails suggested that US examines Pakistani media closely, local media quoting US officials reported on Sunday.

“I get these reports every morning. They are somewhat painful to read since as you know in Pakistan the media can be particularly outrageous. However we can’t ignore the fact that these talk shows are the most watched programming,” former US undersecretary of state Judith McHale wrote in an email to Hillary Clinton in Feb 2010.

The reports, she refers to, are exhaustive summaries of Pakistani primetime talk shows that log the discussion on various local TV shows on a daily basis. The media summaries which regularly arrive in the email inboxes of US embassy employees or State Department officials in Washington appear repeatedly in the US presidential candidate’s recently declassified emails most frequently between 2009 and 2012.

The emails offer a rare insight into Washington’s engagement with Islamabad through the lens of the local media. The summaries of talk shows and news coverage which contain exhaustive details on what was said and who was saying it would be discussed among Ms Clinton s aides at the Washington level if there was something of interest to them.

Michael Kugelman from the Woodrow Wilson Centre explained that the importance Washington placed on Pakistani media could be gauged from the fact that the embassy in Islamabad actually started issuing official statements meant to correct the record when false or misleading claims were made in media about the US or its policies.

“It’s an initiative that didn’t last long and at any rate I’m not sure how effective it was given that many Pakistanis including those most likely to believe the media assertions that the US was trying to reject probably were not aware of these US counter statements,” he said.

For example a series of emails exchanged between State Department officials in April 2010 expressed frustration with former ISI chief Hamid Gul’s allegations that the US is implicated in the assassination of Benazir Bhutto.

The exchange notes that Mr Gul was one of the people named by Ms Bhutto as possible threats to her security in a letter sent to General Musharraf before she came to Pakistan. This factoid the emails indicate was shared with Pakistani media outlets and at least one of whom aired it within an hour of it being sent out.

“Whenever there is something that affects US interests or there is a clarification that needs to be made regarding US role in any matter they (US officials) are on it almost immediately,” said a former embassy staffer. But, he said, since most officials did not necessarily have a great deal of context about Pakistan they relied on media coverage and interviews with journalists to get a feel for how issues were viewed domestically.