Et Tu, Vox?

       At long last, a Saturday to myself. After multiple Saturdays of Forensics and Model UN, I had been eagerly looking forward to this Saturday. I actually had the time and energy to watch educational videos and not just pure entertainment. 
       I was laying in my comfy bed just because I could, (did I mention I didn't get much sleep last week either?) thinking about how I had Saturday and  Sunday to do my homework, which for once in a blue moon wasn't an insane amount. 

       I perused my YouTube feed and came across a video by Vox  (yes! I love Vox!), I thought to myself as I noticed it was about Pakistan's new Prime Minister who, as of late, I had kind of been wishing  I was more educated on. Mostly because I was Pakistani and every Pakistani I knew was kind of— I mean very, obsessed with him. I totally got why, he was a famous Cricket player turned Prime Minister, probably the equivalent to Lebron James becoming President or something. (That was the best comparison I could make as someone that doesn't really care for sports, so know that it might be off.)
      Anyways, getting to the point of narrating my Saturday, after watching the video I thought I had a good idea about everything, except for one crucial area.Vox spent some time on how Khan had been called a Taliban sympathizer, which definitely confused and shocked me, I'd have to do some more research on that. My first step of action, as one does when on YouTube, was to read the comments. 

        Said comments were off the rails. With any political video, there are always people with opposite views, but the criticism covered much more than that. Left right and center, people were accusing Vox of messing up blatant facts and construing evidence to make Pakistan look bad, for example using a video of Imran Khan explaining what the Taliban is, as proof of him being a sympathizer. 

I was feeling slightly betrayed.

       I looked back at the video and found other parts that didn't really add up either, why was Vox painting the fact that Imran Khan's strategy to deal with terrorism by negotiation was also a bad thing? I'm no foreign policy expert, so who knows, maybe negotiation is ineffective. However, using it with the goal of peace doesn't qualify being called a sympathizer. One thing I do know, is that negotiating with terrorists is the polar opposite to the U.S's strategy, but who is Vox to imply one of those strategies is wrong? 

       To say the least, my Saturday had been slightly dampened, and I was feeling slightly betrayed. I used to feel like I could trust Vox. Now I started to notice other things wrong with the video, every video clip of Pakistan was, of course not Pakistan at its best. Our media seems to portray any country that isn't western as dirty and dangerous. People probably equate what they saw in the video to represent all of Pakistan.  Just like the world wouldn't see America as glamourous anymore if global media only covered America's worst, most dangerous neighborhoods instead of California beaches and New York skyscrapers like usual. It's probably not a stretch to say that people in America probably view other countries as dangerous and primitive. Much like Horace Miner in his piece about the Nacirema people, paints them as lesser when he equates personal hygiene to "body rituals" (Miner, 504). Implying that they aren't competent enough to use logic, and must blindly trust in rituals.
        I really am trying not to attack Vox with this post, but that video definitely could've been more objective. I don't enjoy pointing out all of Vox's flaws. Usually, I love their videos and I think most of them are really helpful. I actually enjoy journalism and want to pursue it as a career, furthermore, Vox is still on my list of dream places to work at. Why? If Vox is reading this, which I know is a one and a million of a chance, I would want them to know this: I believe in their purpose of explaining the news, and I think they can and should make an effort to stick to that purpose and invite more people to the table, so next time they can report the whole story.