What was the name of that tavern?

There is a new habit in mainstream media; in news stories containing negative events, the names of restaurants, hotels, private hospitals, and companies are almost never mentioned.

Most recently, Habertürk’s report on “Shocking images at a luxury tavern in Cihangir” and Halktv’s report on “She didn't accept the champagne treat and went through everything!” did not include the name of the tavern. Later, dozens of websites, TV channels, and newspapers copied these reports exactly but did not feel the need to research the name of the tavern. The reports also lacked information on when the incident took place.

Even after the municipal police sealed the tavern and the business owner was detained, BirGün, Milliyet, Sözcü, Korkusuz, and Kanal D did not provide the information that the tavern’s name was “Divane Cihangir.” In fact, most of them did not even mention when the incident occurred.

Another example of anonymous reporting is the Anadolu Agency report titled “Record fine for the company whose unregistered revenue was determined by the Revenue Administration.” This report also failed to mention the name of the tobacco company that was fined 6 billion liras! The dozens of news sites that used this report, including Akşam, Hürriyet, Milliyet, Milli Gazete, Sabah, Türkiye, and Yeni Şafak, also failed to include the name of the company that received such a massive fine.

In the report titled “Air conditioning protest at a 5-star hotel,” it was stated that a hotel guest whose air conditioning problem was not resolved moved their bed to the restaurant. In this report, which was based on footage posted to social media by a person named Cenk Bilge, the name of the “5-star hotel” where the incident took place was not mentioned. This report was published anonymously on almost all television channels and news sites. However, the name of the hotel is one of the fundamental elements of the news. It is the right of this society to know the name of a hotel that treats its customers poorly.

Similarly, in the reports titled “Forgetfulness that leaves one disabled” and “She came from Spain to Istanbul for aesthetics and returned in a coffin,” the names of the private hospitals were not mentioned, and the hospital authorities were not spoken to. All of these were reports missing the “Where” and the subject of the “5W1H” rule; they were one-sided.

It might seem easy to speak to one person or take a social media post and publish it as news without providing a place or time, but this is bad journalism. Fundamental journalistic rules are being trampled upon. If the goal is the public's right to know and the public interest, these texts do not fulfill that function. They are read like soap bubbles for entertainment and then forgotten. People learn nothing, and no problem is solved.

The prosecutor case and incomplete journalism

The initial reports regarding the incident experienced by Ünye Public Prosecutor Mücahid Şamil Koca at a restaurant in Aybastı carried the headline: “Prosecutor had the owners and employees of the venue detained because it was full and he couldn't eat.” Once the prosecutor's statement and new footage emerged, the news turned completely around: “Ünye Public Prosecutor assaulted, his child and mother-in-law injured!”

It was a positive attitude for T24 and Halk TV’s İsmail Saymaz to apologize while correcting their initial reports and to openly accept responsibility for the error. However, the statement in both explanations that the initial report was “incomplete” and “one-sided” due to the inability to obtain information from prosecution sources pointed to the repetition of a common mistake in digital media. While BirGün also corrected its initial report and apologized, it admitted that the news had been “served with incomplete information and in a one-sided manner.”

The correct approach is to try to complete a news story if it is incomplete and one-sided. Incomplete news is not news. However, in recent times, the anxiety for speed has taken precedence over everything; the path of completing the missing parts later and adding the respondent's answer later has become the norm. This method can lead to grave and remarkable consequences, as seen in Aybastı.

Unfortunately, after the correction of the initial reports, a one-sided language remained dominant in almost all media reports about Prosecutor Koca being subjected to violence. While Prosecutor Koca’s statement and explanations were conveyed, it was a deficiency that the defense of the arrested restaurant owner Erkan Güleç and other restaurant employees was not included this time.

Another error in these reports was the violation of the privacy of the prosecutor’s baby, who had a swollen forehead. Many news sites quoted the photo used in Gerçek Gündem without blurring it. Even if the father had provided it, the correct thing to do was to observe the best interests of the baby and cover the face to prevent the creation of a digital footprint. Sometimes, it falls to us journalists to protect children against the mistakes of their parents.

Journalist montage in interviews

Impossible things are happening in our media. We learned about the fake interview through a social media post by volleyball player Naz Aydemir Akyol:

“I cannot make sense of my interview conducted in December for Nevşin Mengü’s ‘Nevşin ile Nirvana’ program being prepared for another channel and published 8 months after it was conducted, with another presenter edited in. I submit this for your information.”

Indeed, Nevşin Mengü had been removed from the interview; new footage had been shot as if Ersin Düzen had asked the same questions, and it was edited with the old footage. You would think Naz Aydemir Akyol and Ersin Düzen were talking, but Nevşin Mengü’s voice could be heard from underneath in places.

Interestingly, the interview was removed from YouTube following the reactions, but no objection came from Nevşin Mengü. Ersin Düzen also did not speak out against the heavy criticism on social media; he could not defend himself.

Because it seems that the questions were added later not only in the Naz Aydemir Akyol interview but also in two interviews conducted with athletes Hande Baladın and Zehra Güneş on the program “Ersin Düzen ile Nirvana,” which is published on the YouTube channel called 343 Digital. In the interview with Ayşe Begüm Onbaşı, Ersin Düzen is never seen side-by-side with the athlete.

I do not know how Ersin Düzen can appear on screens after such a major forgery. The fact that he has not even apologized to the athletes he disrespected, the viewers, or Nevşin Mengü shows that he is not aware of the moral swamp he has fallen into.

The photo of the trans swimmer

It was a two-line news item. “Olympic Committee decided to ban Lia Thomas from women’s swimming competitions without providing a reason.” Right below it was a photo of trans swimmer Lia Thomas where the front of her swimsuit appeared to be bulging!

On the night of August 4, this photo and news were shared on social media by “Digital Messengers” with hundreds of thousands of followers, including AjansAbluka, BirimHaber, EkinoksHaber, DarkWebHaber, X Haber, Mevzi, Muhbir, and PoliticTürk.

However, this news they spread was not true. World Aquatics had banned Lia Thomas, who transitioned, from competing in the women’s category. Lia Thomas, who also lost her legal battle, had not participated in the Paris Olympics anyway. The photo of Lia Thomas, taken at a competition at the University of Pennsylvania five years ago, had been manipulated. The montage photo first circulated on international accounts; the verification site InfodemiaMX in Mexico had announced that this photo was a montage.

Clearly, someone from Turkey also saw the montage photo and took it, and others copied and multiplied it. It would be more accurate to call these accounts that use the title “Digital Messenger” “Crumb Messengers.” Because most of them spread disinformation by sharing what they hear without passing it through an editorial filter. Since they appear to be journalists, they also damage the reputation of journalism.

In a single sentence:

The group invited by TCDD to the “Touristic Tatvan Train” journey, which included journalists Emin Pazarcı, Sinan Burhan, Şaban Sevinç, Nasuhi Güngör, Mehmet Aydın, and Zafer Şahin, as well as digital publisher Adem Metan, was hosted by governors and mayors during the two-day trip.

While Evrensel and Sözcü reported on the inside pages about the Istanbul Metropolitan Municipality renting the Palais Galliera in Paris for 249 thousand Euros per week and taking a large group of guests to Paris, BirGün did not write about it at all; Cumhuriyet did not mention the 249 thousand Euros in its small report inside; in general, the opposition media did not question the identity of the sponsors.

AA, Yeni Şafak, and TRT wrote about Majd, founded by Hamas’s new leader Yahya Sinwar, as a “security and invitation organization,” but it should have been “security and tracking”; Majd is an internal security organization that “tracks” and executes people associated with Israeli security services.

Facebook removed T24’s report containing a portrait of Yahya Sinwar, but there was no reaction to this blocking from the government circles that shut down Instagram for not publishing condolences for Haniye; the pro-government media did not report on it either.

The Trendyol company took writers from Akşam, Sabah, Ekonomim, Dünya, KRT TV, and Türkiye to Paris as guests, and in return, they published company promotions disguised as news with headlines like “Turkish textiles stamp on the Olympics” and “Turkish products conquered the Olympics.”

Show TV repeated the footage of the robot vacuum cleaner in the repair shop catching fire and exploding six times.

The Türkiye newspaper used a photo of a THY plane, not a business jet, in its report “Troublemakers of metal birds,” which conveyed the problem experienced by a business jet landing at Atatürk Airport.

The pro-government media did not provide information about the fate of the S-400 missiles purchased from Russia for 2.5 billion dollars in their “Steel Dome” reports regarding the establishment of an air defense system.

KRT TV joined the TV channels that broadcast the speeches of President Erdoğan and AKP spokespersons live.

In Sözcü’s report “A medal suits you,” the information about which team the Women’s National Volleyball Team would play against in the “bronze medal” match was missing.

The reports on President Erdoğan’s meeting with ministers were again headlined “Cabinet meeting,” but there is neither a “Cabinet” nor a “Council of Ministers” in the new Constitution.

Akşam accidentally wrote the name of swimmer Kuzey Tunçelli as Kerem Tunçelli in its report “Promise of 4 medals from Kuzey in 2028.”