Gambling in Casablanca? We’re shocked!
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Oluşturulma Tarihi: Aralık 01, 2008 00:00
We are all familiar with the means by which pedestrians of Turkish cities collectivize their will to brave traffic: a phenomenon of density and unspoken social cohesion. Going solo against aggressive motorists is daring. But if, say, four or five pedestrians step into the crosswalk at the same time, this challenge to the oncoming taxi usually works. Sadly, the media in all societies tend to work the same way. A trend, a development, a shift in political wind may be sensed by the lone newspaper or magazine. But seldom do they write until what social psychologists call "groupthink" provides confidence. Journalists tend to shuffle together, particularly when confronting the traffic of a new narrative.
On groupthink cue, the Economist, the New York Times, Reuters and Newsweek have collectively discovered that Turkey’s Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has developed an authoritarian edge. "We are shocked," might be a way to express our reaction, paraphrasing Captain Renault’s discovery of gambling in the epic film "Casablanca."
For as the Hürriyet Daily News & Economic Review’s İrem Köker reports in today’s newspaper, these are the same international media organizations who have long criticized Erdoğan opponents of being "staunchly secular" and resistant to change. They reached different conclusions to explain Erdogan's migration from "reformist to autocrat." But finally they noticed what their Turkish colleagues have been writing for months.
We wish, of course, that the international media had been vigilant last spring when the PM was using the public seizure of an opposition media group to convert a political crony employing his son-in-law into a media baron with the aid of $800 million or so in questionably secured state funding. We were disappointed with many of our international colleagues’ silence when the PM called on followers to boycott this newspaper and others in the Doğan Media Group for reporting a German corruption prosecution Ğ and conviction Ğ of Erdoğan allies.
When the prime minister launched his new "love or leave it" rhetoric of intolerance at a speech in Hakkari some weeks back, we expected more international notice. And the stripping of seven reporters accredited to the prime ministry of their press cards a few weeks ago was a tactic that should have received far more international condemnation than it did. A Turkish phrase comes to mind: "işte buyurun."
Knowing our prime minister as we do, we expect the next move of his defenders will be to decry "conspiracy" and concoct nutty theories about the synchronized nature of the new criticism. This should be ignored.
For "groupthink" is a curse of lazy journalists everywhere. More important, we believe, is that the "group" finally summoned the courage to step off of the curb.
For as the Hürriyet Daily News & Economic Review’s İrem Köker reports in today’s newspaper, these are the same international media organizations who have long criticized Erdoğan opponents of being "staunchly secular" and resistant to change. They reached different conclusions to explain Erdogan's migration from "reformist to autocrat." But finally they noticed what their Turkish colleagues have been writing for months.
We wish, of course, that the international media had been vigilant last spring when the PM was using the public seizure of an opposition media group to convert a political crony employing his son-in-law into a media baron with the aid of $800 million or so in questionably secured state funding. We were disappointed with many of our international colleagues’ silence when the PM called on followers to boycott this newspaper and others in the Doğan Media Group for reporting a German corruption prosecution Ğ and conviction Ğ of Erdoğan allies.
When the prime minister launched his new "love or leave it" rhetoric of intolerance at a speech in Hakkari some weeks back, we expected more international notice. And the stripping of seven reporters accredited to the prime ministry of their press cards a few weeks ago was a tactic that should have received far more international condemnation than it did. A Turkish phrase comes to mind: "işte buyurun."
Knowing our prime minister as we do, we expect the next move of his defenders will be to decry "conspiracy" and concoct nutty theories about the synchronized nature of the new criticism. This should be ignored.
For "groupthink" is a curse of lazy journalists everywhere. More important, we believe, is that the "group" finally summoned the courage to step off of the curb.