What would have happened if Fenerbahçe had played like a woman?

The remarks made by Fenerbahçe manager İsmail Kartal following the Çaykur Rizespor match do not seem to have surprised the football media.

Yet, Kartal’s words, “I congratulate the opposing team, they did not make the game ugly. On such a pitch, both teams’ players went out like men, they played football like men, and so did we. We did not hide behind excuses,” were sexist. He attributed superior values to masculinity; and indirectly disparaged womanhood. If Fenerbahçe had played poorly that day, would that have meant they played like a woman?

While “playing like a man” is an extremely archaic perspective that should have been left in the past, there was no strong objection from the football media to these words, which Kartal uttered into the broadcaster's microphone after the match. Moreover, newspapers featured these words in their headlines: Hürriyet wrote “Both teams played like men,” Fanatik “İsmail Kartal spoke openly,” Sabah “We played like men,” Habertürk “We played like men, like men,” Sözcü, Sporx, and Yeni Akit “We played like men,” and NTV Spor and Yeni Şafak “Both teams played football like men.”

In a program attended by manager Ümit Özat, the host, far from criticizing, even directed his question by saying, “I am expecting a comment like a man.” Kartal also received significant support on social media and became a trending topic. Only a small number of people stated that Kartal’s words were “sexist.”

The “Geçiş Oyunu” program on Habertürk was one of the rare exceptions. Mehmet Ayan opened the program by saying, “I am saddened. This masculine language has strained us,” and Kartal’s words were criticized during the broadcast. On the internet, the ABC website displayed a critical approach with the headline “Scandalous statement on live broadcast,” 12 Punto website “Sexist statement from İsmail Kartal,” and the Türkiye newspaper with “İsmail Kartal’s words were surprising.” But the next day, Türkiye newspaper’s football writer Sadık Söztutan titled his column “They played like men.” He added the footnote, “The title of this article was inspired by İsmail Kartal.”

I did not write about this topic last week, wondering if the football media might look at Kartal’s words more cool-headedly when there was a break in the matches during the week. I waited with hope for critical voices to rise from the football media, but unfortunately, it did not happen. Kartal’s words were not even considered worth discussing in Hürriyet’s “Football Council” or Sabah’s “Free Podium.”

The football media crowned sexism; spread it to the football community; and normalized it once again.

JOURNALISTS ABOVE THE JUDICIARY

Journalists who ask questions to President Erdoğan on the plane often forget their actual profession. On the return from the Egypt trip, one of the journalists, while asking Erdoğan a question, had abandoned journalism and assumed the role of a judge:

“450 judges and prosecutors were dismissed on the grounds of being linked to FETÖ. The 5th Chamber of the Council of State reinstated these 450 judges and prosecutors. The HSK (Council of Judges and Prosecutors) had an objection to this scandal. We are curious about your thoughts and stance on this matter.”

He was a journalist, but he saw himself above the Council of State. His question was not a question either; he was setting the stage for Erdoğan to criticize the Council of State. He replied, “It is impossible for us to remain silent about this decision taken by the Council of State.” Erdoğan thus declared that, after the Constitutional Court, he would not recognize the decisions of the Council of State that he did not like.

Journalism must defend law and justice under all circumstances, at all times. But the journalists on the plane did not speak up about Erdoğan seeing himself above the Constitutional Court and the Council of State. Moreover, after this statement by Erdoğan, the Council of State was constantly blamed in news and articles in the pro-government media. And it was portrayed as if the Council of State had suddenly reinstated 450 judges and prosecutors. Even defending the reinstatement decisions was equated with “defending FETÖ members.”

However, the 5th Chamber of the Council of State has been examining the decisions regarding judges and prosecutors dismissed by decree-law (KHK) for 7 years. Since that day—as reported in İsmail Saymaz’s article—it has rejected the applications of 4,186 out of 4,600 judges and prosecutors dismissed by decree-law, and decided to reinstate only 414; 387 of them have returned to their duties.

What should really be focused on is that the decree-laws are not based on a judicial decision. What is in accordance with the law was for people to be tried first and dismissed if found guilty. But the decree-laws based on administrative decisions brought a monstrous system of “punishment first, trial later.”

Legal oversight was essential for justice to be served. It is natural for the Council of State to examine the sentences that were executed in advance and to find and weed out those that are not in accordance with the law and are not based on concrete data. Furthermore, those reinstated are not even 10 percent of those dismissed.

When this is the case, the fact that some journalists target the Council of State instead of supporting the realization of justice shows how far they have fallen from professional principles. A journalist is a person who puts aside their prejudices and cannot tolerate even a single person being subjected to injustice.

IF THE PRIME MINISTER’S WIFE BOARDS THE STATE PLANE…

It also became news in Turkey. The agenda in Sweden was Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson having the state pay for the expenses of his wife, Birgitta, whom he took on his trips to the USA and Finland.

The one who revealed this was Swedish state television SVT. Since those who board state-owned planes in Sweden other than officials are required to pay their expenses, the news from SVT created a major debate. The 16 thousand kronor (approximately 47.6 thousand TL) flight and hotel expenses were deducted from Kristersson’s salary.

In Turkey, let alone TRT being able to report such news, almost the entire media does not even see President Erdoğan taking his family members on official trips… For example, his son Bilal Erdoğan also participated in the last Egypt trip; he took part in the official delegation. He was also visible in the photos, but I did not come across it being reported anywhere other than BirGün, Halk TV, and Sol Haber.

In any case, besides the Erdoğan family, guests like Fatih Erbakan also travel on those planes. Just as no one objects to the expenses of those guests being paid from the state budget, the mainstream media is not questioned either; taking friends and acquaintances on state planes is seen as normal. Even when asked about the number of presidential planes, a sarcastic answer like “As many as needed” can be given.

It does not stop there; Erdoğan is also using state planes and vehicles in this election campaign. There is no objection to this in the media either; it is not even reported anymore...

Journalism means looking against the grain; a local outlet might accept such a wrong as right because it is repeated often, but it can be neither a journalist nor national...

In one sentence:

• On the day when news that “The mine manager was released in 6 hours” appeared in AA, Hürriyet, Sözcü, Karar, and many other places, the Türkiye newspaper reported “The ‘Turkey manager’ of the mine was caught”; moreover, it coded his name, which was given openly everywhere, as C.D.

• Akşam, Türkiye, and Yeni Akit made a covert advertisement for a dessert shop in the news “Sansaryan Han will now be sweet”; and it was not mentioned that the Constitutional Court had ruled for “violation of property rights” in the case filed by the Armenian Patriarchate.

• The fact that AKP’s Istanbul Metropolitan Municipality candidate Murat Kurum greeted in Kurdish and wore a traditional scarf (poşu) at the “Diyarbakır Residents Meeting” was not included in the news in the pro-government media.

• Milliyet published a full-page covert advertisement by interviewing the general manager of the new horse racing gambling site of the Demirören Group, which owns the newspaper.

• The name of the “defendant company” was missing in the news of Akşam and Hürriyet titled “4 million TL compensation lawsuit for negligence that left [a person] disabled.”

• Sabah, which did not see news value in the 2.56 lira hike in gasoline on February 15 and the dollar exceeding 31 lira, reported “1.10 discount on diesel, 76 kuruş on gasoline.”

• The full-page covert advertisement of Bursa’s AKP Metropolitan Municipality was published in Türkgün and Yeni Şafak newspapers without a “This is an advertisement” warning.

• The name of the site that was the subject of the event was missing in the news “Protest at a 604-apartment site in Karşıyaka” reported by DHA; IHA, on the other hand, gave the name “Emlak Konut Mavişehir Evleri Site” in its news.

• In the news reported by DHA and used in Karar, the murderer who killed a woman named Nurcan İnan in Bursa was described as a “Platonic lover,” thus justifying the murder.

• While the test flight of the prototype of Turkey’s first combat aircraft was on the headlines in the pro-government media, Evrensel, BirGün, and Korkusuz did not see it at all; Cumhuriyet, Sözcü, and Gazete Pencere published it on inside pages; Milli Gazete, Karar, and Yeniçağ saw it as small on the front page.
  

• Türkiye newspaper writer Ahmet Şimşirgil, in his article titled “Who will audit Diyanet TV,” argued that incorrect religious information was being given on this channel.

• Three days after journalist Seçil Türkkan published her podcast with Ümit Nar, the owner of Hermes second-hand bookstore, under the title “Hermes against Hermes,” AFP also gave the same title (Hermes vs Hermes) to its news about this bookstore.

• Researcher İhsan Aktaş, in his article in Yeni Şafak, criticized YRP executives appearing on Halk TV by saying it “reminds one of the representatives of three parties committing political suicide.”

• Despite the strike that has been going on for 194 days, Sputnik editors, who prefer to work at the institution, took Gazete Duvar’s “Active fault newly discovered in Bursa” news without citing the source.

• Yeni Akit targeted sendika.org and Disk-Basın-İş due to the republication of the “Here is the Turkish Charlie Hebdo” news following the Constitutional Court’s decision.

• The Sabah Sunday supplement writer, who was invited to Van, paid for the hospitality in the city by making a full-page covert advertisement news titled “Gastronomy center on the shore of Lake Van.”

• Sözcü wrote that astrology writer Öner Döşer knew in advance that there would be a mining accident, but Öner’s other 10 predictions, along with “improvements in employees’ rights,” did not come true.

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