Today’s Zaman = ad hominem

Today’s Zaman’da Bülent Keneş Dani’nin National Interest’de yayımlanan makalesi üzerine bir yazı kaleme almış. Bu seviyesiz ve kişisel saldırıdan öteye gitmeyen yazı hakkında pek söyleyecek bir şeyimiz yok. Yazı, yazarını ve gazeteyi yeteri kadar ele veriyor zaten. Bu yüzden okumanızı hararetle tavsiye ederiz.

Biz bir tek noktaya dikkat çekmek istiyoruz. Keneş’in makalesinde, Dani’nin yazısında Zaman’ın kasıtlı ve yanıltıcı gazeteciliğine dair verdiği somut örneklerden tek bir tanesine dahi cevap yok. Zaman ile ilgili yazdıklarımızı burada tekrar edelim:

“But no publication worked harder to discredit us than Zaman, Turkey’s largest-circulation daily. The pro-government Zaman—along with its English-language sister publication Today’s Zaman—has been a steady source of disinformation on the Sledgehammer case from the beginning. At various times, the paper has reported that the infamous CDs bear authenticated fingerprints, that the Sledgehammer documents carry the planners’ signatures, that civilian staff have admitted preparing the coup documents, that military prosecutors have certified the coup plans as genuine—all of which happen to be false. At one point, the paper had to quietly pull a piece off its web archive after we pointed out the countless errors it contained.

As our views gained some traction and the public debate began to shift, Zaman went into overdrive. It published several front-page stories trying to undercut our evidence. It argued that the “discovery” of a new stash of digital material in a navy base proved us wrong—even though the new files contained all the same anachronisms, plus more! Some of Zaman’s attacks were nothing less than bizarre. The paper ran a story that suggested I was slated to become economy minister once the Sledgehammer coup took place and the military took charge. There were articles that focused on my Harvard affiliation and insinuated that I was damaging Harvard’s reputation by providing support for “coup-mongers.” When I invited Zaman’s editor Ekrem Dumanli to a debate about the facts of the case, there was, predictably, no response.

Zaman’s exertions to prove, against all logic, the coup documents’ authenticity and to discredit anyone who would argue otherwise carry broader significance. Zaman is not just Turkey’s largest-circulation newspaper; it is also the media flagship of the Fethullah Gülen movement. Gülen is a charismatic Pennsylvania-based Turkish preacher who has built a vast network of followers that is closely allied with the AKP government. His apparent espousal of a tolerant, humane, and moderate brand of Islam has led many to believe that the movement seeks nothing more than a culturally conservative, yet democratic Turkey. Yet Zaman’s vilification campaign against the defendants and blatant distortion of the facts give the lie to these democratic pretensions.”

Burada söylenenlere karşı Zaman gazetesinin verebileceği hiçbir cevap yok. Keneş de cevap vermeye çalışmıyor. Ne Zaman’ın yalan haber örneklerine, ne Ekrem Dumanlı’nın açık bir tartışmaya girmekten kaçmasına, ne de Zaman gazetesinin ahlak dışı yayınlarının Gülen hareketi ile ilgili yarattığı sorulara.

Not:

Wikipedia’dan:

Ad hominem, ya da argumentum ad hominem, kalıplaşmış bir Latince terimdir.

Bir argümana cevap verirken argümanı eleştirmekten ziyade argümanı yapan kişiye saldırmak olarak tanımlanır; mantıksal bir safsatadır (logical fallacy).