News anchors in detective costumes

Sözcü TV introduced its new broadcasting line for the upcoming season with a visual that resembles the posters of Hollywood action movies. Under the visual shared on the Sözcü TV account, it was written: “This is not a movie poster, it is the major league of journalism.”

However, there was not a single thing in the visual that evoked journalism. Sözcü TV news anchors Serdar Cebe and Ekrem Açıkel were dressed as detectives, chasing someone with guns in their hands as if they were the stars of the movie “Tango & Cash”!

The sentence written under the visual, “The action never ends, the truth is spoken on Sözcü television!” also fits the show of armed “news anchors” in detective costumes! Indeed, there is neither news nor news anchors in this visual. There is only a call to action…

There is also nothing in this promotion for the sake of good and quality journalism. Moreover, journalism is identified with adventure, action, and detective work. Using street slang, being a “tough guy” is portrayed as if it were a merit criterion for good journalism.

The practitioners of a profession that should always stand against conflicts and defend peace are being integrated with guns and conflict. Moreover, action, violence, and weapons are presented as tools for producing and publishing “good news, quality news” and keeping a finger on the “pulse of the agenda.”

The fact that a news channel promotes its journalism in this way is worrying regarding how they will pursue the truth. It may be recalled that last week, they simulated the abduction of Venezuelan President Maduro from his residence by US soldiers using artificial intelligence and broadcast it on the Sözcü TV news bulletin like an action movie. They glorified violence and legitimized the “hegemonic power” of the US.

It seems that having AI prepare a movie about Maduro’s abduction is a product of the “journalism” mentality seen in the “Tango & Cash” visual. If journalistic professional ethics are violated this much during the promotion phase, we shall see how much professional codes will be followed in the news.

EDITOR-IN-CHIEFS AS REPORTERS!

It has become a trend; ministers and party officials invite writers, Ankara representatives, and sometimes even editors-in-chief to press conferences and trips.

Minister of Family and Social Services Mahinur Özdemir Göktaş also invited senior media executives to the press conference she held at the Darülaceze Social Life City. The news, which stated that Göktaş “met with representatives of media organizations,” was used without a byline in newspapers such as Milliyet, Nefes, Karar, and Yeni Akit. In Hürriyet, the report carried the byline of experienced reporter Fatma Aksu.

The same news carried the byline of General Publication Coordinator Yücel Koç in Türkiye, Editor-in-Chief Hüseyin Likoğlu in Yeni Şafak, and News Coordinator Kenan Kıran in Sabah. Koç, Likoğlu, and Kıran had also attached a duo photo they took with Minister Göktaş to the news.

Like all ministers who invite senior executives to press conferences, Göktaş’s effort to make her meeting appear more important by providing such a level of representation may be justified from her perspective. However, this is a method that should be rejected from the perspective of journalism.

The fact that executives take on news activities that reporters should do—and which expert reporters could do more competently—renders reporting dysfunctional; deals a blow to expert reporting; harms the relationship between reporters and news sources; and weakens their positions.

Furthermore, since these executives also have editorial duties, the editorial chain regarding the formation and publication of news is broken, and the editorial process becomes open to different interventions and influences.

Was there news at Göktaş’s press conference that reporters covering that field could not do? Did what Göktaş explained contain a subject of very high news value? Judging by what was published, Göktaş’s press conference had no such special importance at all. Its importance did not increase just because editors-in-chief and coordinators put their bylines on it. What suffered, once again, was reporting…

ÇAKIR DID NOT READ THE NEWS HE CALLED “SLANDER”

Mersin Deputy Hasan Ufuk Çakır, who resigned from the CHP, defended his switch to the AKP by saying, “They slandered me.” In news reports on television channels such as CNN Türk and TV 100, which stated that he had previously “called for the acquittal of imprisoned mayors: CHP member Çakır’s old judicial archive records revealed,” it was claimed that Çakır was slandered as a “car thief.”

Apparently, neither Çakır nor those speaking on those TVs read the halktv.com.tr news carefully. Because there is no expression like “car theft” in the news; it says “theft from a car”! Moreover, the news does not state that Çakır has a criminal record for “theft from a car”; this is just counted among the incidents Çakır was involved in.

The news in question by halktv.com.tr is based on a document provided by the Mersin Chief Public Prosecutor’s Office while Çakır was a parliamentary candidate. According to this document, Çakır does not have a “judicial record”; he has a “judicial archive record.” The nine-item “archive record” includes information that Çakır was sentenced to 10 months in prison twice, 3 months and 22 days in prison once, and “community service” twice in the past. Since the sentences were served, these have been deleted from the “judicial record.”

In the section of the document titled “incidents involved in,” it is stated that Çakır was involved in incidents such as “theft from a car,” “threat,” “intentional injury,” and “insult” between 2006 and 2013. However, there is no information that a lawsuit was filed against Çakır regarding these incidents.

However, while this issue was being conveyed in the halktv.com.tr news, it was said, “According to Çakır’s records; in the record dated December 15, 2006, the first accusation was listed as ‘theft from a car’,” and the following sentences were punctuated with “accusations were included” and “crime headings were found.” However, it was a deficiency not to state after these sentences that there were no “accusations” in the legal sense against Çakır and that no proceedings were taken.

In addition, the phrase “He had called for ‘acquittal’ for imprisoned mayors” in the headline creates the perception that Çakır also has crimes that need to be acquitted and that the news was prepared to respond to Çakır’s attitude.

Of course, there is a document that is the source of the news. It is also surprising that the journalists who brought Çakır onto their programs and interviewed him did not mention this document or ask about the details…

HEALTH OR HOTEL MANAGEMENT?

The news in the Sabah newspaper carried the headline “City hospitals carried Turkey to the top in health.” The spot was exactly as follows:

“In Turkey, which the world takes as a reference in the field of health, 27 city hospitals with 5-star hotel comfort at world standards have been opened in 9 years. 6 more are expected to become operational this year.”

If you are writing a “news report,” then there must be harmony between the headline and the news text. The news must contain concrete data regarding what is said in the headline. This rule is stated in the very first lessons in “news writing” courses at communication faculties and is underlined repeatedly.

In Sabah’s news, however, there is no connection between the headline and the content! The headline says Turkey has been “carried to the top in health”; the spot claims that “the world takes Turkey as a reference in the field of health.” However, the news does not talk about the success of these hospitals in the “field of health,” but about their “hotel comfort.”

Apart from information such as the number of City Hospitals and that new ones will be opened, there is only one sentence regarding the features of these hospitals, and that is about “hotel services”:

“The rooms of the city hospitals, built with the ‘one room per patient’ concept, offer comfort to patients and their relatives with their toilets, bathrooms, televisions, refrigerators, and wardrobes.”

Well, where is the “health” in this comfort? “One room per patient comfort” may be related to hotel services, but these do not explain what contribution city hospitals have made to the health system. Therefore, this is a piece of news that is incomplete, incorrect, and reduces medical services to hotel management.

If you are going to praise the contribution of city hospitals to health, work a little, find concrete data if there is any. If you cannot find it, do not say “top in health,” because it hasn’t happened…

In a single sentence:

Yeni Şafak had the news “Blood-chilling confession in the Dilmaç murder” prepared by artificial intelligence; while publishing it, they forgot to delete the AI’s note: “If you want, we can revise this with a slightly harsher spot or so that the chronological flow is more evident.”

The Türkiye newspaper presented the news, which contained no information about the relevance of the judge being Jewish to the trial, with the headline “Maduro defended himself before a Jewish judge.”

In Milliyet’s headline “The last step to magma,” the photo showing lava flowing from a volcano had nothing to do with Manisa, which was the subject of the news, but it was not stated that it was a “stock photo.”

Yeni Akit reported the power outage that started after the sabotage act in Berlin with a mocking tone under the headline “Hans was left in the dark.”

Turkish Press Federation President Sinan Burhan displayed a new example of “pro-government” journalism by writing that he told President Erdoğan, whom he encountered in the TBMM, “Sir, we missed you,” that he “showed affection,” and that he “loves Erdoğan.”

THY gave a full-page advertisement titled “Turkish Airlines is taking wing” to pro-government newspapers Akşam, Aydınlık, Dünya, Hürriyet, Milliyet, Posta, Sabah, Takvim, Türkgün, Türkiye, Yeni Akit, Yeni Birlik, and Yeni Şafak.

Odatv mistakenly put the headline “Tayfun Demirören ‘resigned’” on the news that Demirören Holding Board Member Tayfun Demirören’s company had gone “bankrupt.”

Haberler.com, despite it being known that suicides have a contagious nature, turned a post by a person whose name is not even known into the news “Saying ‘My last message,’ he announced he would commit suicide.”

The pro-government media, which gives extensive coverage to the accusation of “making propaganda for a terrorist organization,” ignored the acquittal of Istanbul Bar Association President İbrahim Kaboğlu and his executives.

In Show TV’s news “The veteran wants that piece removed,” there was no opposing view from the accused doctor and hospital; the news was one-sided.

Yeni Akit, again using language incompatible with journalism, headlined the news “Well, what is it about those city hospitals that bothers you.”

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