AA breaks new ground in the 'desperation of being unable to remain neutral'

The war that began today with the attacks by the US and Israel on Iran is witnessing attempts by hegemonic powers to restructure social memory and conscience in the field of communication. In the context of the political economy of news, mainstream media in the US and Europe operate like public relations departments for the military-industrial complex, while Israeli media, under the supervision of military censorship, attempts to maintain an illusion designed to preserve the myth of invincibility. A global and local censorship mechanism is at work, concealing the damage sustained by the aggressor while allowing the victim only a statistical presence. It is certainly no coincidence that the destruction caused by missiles landing in Israel, the military losses, and the civilian damage are kept off the world agenda. If the damage in Israel were reflected on screens in all its nakedness, the Iron Dome legend would collapse, and the West's outpost in the region would appear fragile. The primary goal in concealing losses and damages in Israel is to prevent the questioning of the class-based and imperialist character of the conflict in the region. The eyes that 'do not see' the young girls killed in Iran and the mind that hides the losses in Israel are fed from the same source: the continuity of the imperialist narrative. In this direction, in Turkey, a media blockade and self-censorship are also being applied, combined with concerns over 'regional economic/political interests and diplomatic balance,' pushing the public's right to information into the background due to the alliances to which the country belongs.

AA and Turkey: The Complicity of 'Tension' Rhetoric

The real disappointment here, and the subject that needs to be analyzed, is the line taken by Anadolu Agency (AA) in war and crisis reporting. We already know that television screens and traditional newspapers do what is required by their ownership structures and political-economic interests. But AA is a public institution. At the very least, it is expected not to abandon the ethical codes and neutrality of journalism in its foreign policy reporting. The 'US-Israel-Iran Tension' headline used by AA has sterilized a war where one side bombs schools and the other side retaliates. The language of the news is constructed with passive sentences that hide the perpetrator (e.g., missiles fell, an explosion occurred), thereby preparing an intellectual foundation for complicity in imperialist aggression.

A textbook example of manufacturing consent and framing theories through news language occurred with AA's report titled 'F-35s break new ground in Iran's desperation'.

Technological Fetishism and the Aestheticization of Violence

Presenting the news under the "technology" category is a framing problem in itself. Military attacks where people are killed and schools are struck are stripped of their humanitarian, legal, or political context and reduced to the performance level of a new-generation fighter jet. This is a language that aestheticizes violence and markets death as a technological success story.

Pacifying Iran with the word 'desperation'

The phrase "in Iran's desperation" in the headline codes the party under attack as weak, helpless, and doomed to defeat. This expression carries a subtext that legitimizes the military power of the aggressor (Israel/USA). Through this news language, what happens to the "desperate" party is perceived not as a tragedy, but as an "inevitable technical outcome."

War Industry Glorification: 'Signing off on firsts'

The phrase "signing off on firsts" is an idiom with a positive connotation, usually used for scientific discoveries or artistic achievements. Describing the use of a fighter jet with live ammunition in a field where there are civilian casualties as "signing off on firsts" contains an implicit praise and admiration for the aggressor's military capacity. The news is, in effect, announcing the "successful field test" of a weapon in a war where people are dying.

The rhetoric of 'enabling'

The sentence in the text, "...enables it to perform its firsts on the battlefield," is a perspective that centers the perpetrator (the F-35 under Israeli command) and views its action as an opportunity. The geography under attack is constructed as a laboratory or an empty playground where this aircraft will perform its firsts.

 Geopolitical Bias and Collaborative Language

The fact that a state institution like Anadolu Agency chooses a language that is so technophilic and emphasizes the military superiority of the aggressor in a regional war demonstrates the contradiction in Turkey's regional policies and how it has become integrated into the imperialist military narrative. This language completely ignores the suffering of civilians under attack and the brutal realities of war, inviting the reader to focus instead on the performance of the aircraft.

Consequently, AA is not practicing journalism here; with this news language, it is acting as a volunteer copywriter for F-35 jets and Israeli military strategy. Because when human life is viewed as a “technological capability,” a state news agency ceases to be a source and transforms into a bulletin for the arms industry. Therefore, the loss of institutional trust, the crisis of accuracy, the loss of reality, and finding the truth within the“Post-Truth chaos” in traditional and digital media requires a collective and critical media literacy that will tear down these multi-layered walls of censorship, self-censorship, and framing.