Came across an article today about Turkish decision makers and the Hudson Institute in Washington DC. You can read
it here. Do we have to take this seriously? We call this time of the year in the Netherlands 'komkommertijd', which means, journalists don't have anything to write about - because of the summer season - so they write stories. Always good to read nonsense on the beach, on holiday, or lazy at work.
Anyway, now Turkey will go to the polls on July 22, still no interesting news about their programs, since the political parties in Turkey are fighting with each other more than planing an appropriate Campaign. None of my business, but since EU biasing is Turkey's favorite sport, I am here, standing strong.
The USA, country where investigation journalism has a good history and reputation - think about
Watergate, Iran gate, Abu Ghraib prison,
Guantanamo bay, is still setting the benchmark worldwide.
Al Jazeera is challenging them, but only with horrible pictures and shootings.
The New York Times, Los Angeles Times,
Atlanta Journal, Washington Post and many more are covering world affairs more sincerely than in Turkey, which is drowning itself in Capitals, Colors and screaming headlines. In EU countries, and merely the USA journalists, conduct ethics and how to interpret news these days. And they separate facts from fiction.
Here is a good site about that. And I recommend each Turkish journalist to read this
book. The Elements of Journalism. Also Le Monde and
El Pais are worth reading.
In general, bloggers are considered as more reliable than newspapers. Many journalists have their own blogs these days. Since they have to follow their newspapers' policies, blogging became another outlet for them. I found an interesting blog about the Middle East, where people from Palestine, Israel, Syria, Lebanon, Iraq etc. are talking like good neighbors.
Please, visit that blog. You will get the latest updates about what is going on over there, in particular: Gaza strip and on the West Bank.
And Turkey, yes, there is a boom in blogs. Some interesting, some informative, some give a different perspective than main stream media, and some are boring. But what bothers me is the level of news: too often I see articles starting with: When, If, Why, Where...exactly that leaves too much room for speculations. And besides this, most journalists are badly informed. Especially about world affairs since they are monolingual.
