Racism in "The West Wing."
Last night I saw a rerun of episode 13 ('King Corn') of season 6 of The West Wing but....
I was dumbfounded to see at the beginning of the show a piece of news about an international crisis in which Turkey, having adopted Islamic laws under the leadership of the AKP, is said to have convicted and ordered the execution by beheading of a woman, for having sex with her co-worker, adding that the execution will create difficulties for Turkey's EU admission.
The newsclip is shown several times throughout the episode and there is no possible doubt that it is Turkey they're talking about - the Turkish flag is even displayed quite clearly on the screen, and the crisis becomes a topic of discussion among the characters.
The problem is that this is not just regular fiction, it is something that is absolutely impossible. Turkey has abandonned death penalty since 2002 and has no adultery law - contrary to the United-States, I may add.
This may seem quite trivial but this distortion of reality is extremely dangerous as it generates false ideas in an audience usually unaware of linternational politics and legal systems outside the U.S. Moreover, this episode, when shown in Europe will cause more false ideas about Turkey. In fact, this amounts to sheer racism.
At the same time, I find it particularly telling that the producers chose Turkey whereas if you think of a barbaric law system in a Muslim country, the first non-democratic country that comes to mind is Saudi Arabia which does have death penalty and adlutery law (among others). But that would have been politically incorrect and would have caused an uproar in that country which happens to sit on the largest oil reserve in the world.
I found out that the NBC's portrayal of Turkey in The West Wing did spark reactions from several Turkish politicians and diplomats, including Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who had criticized NBC and sought an apology which they were given.
Here's NBC's reaction to the contoversy (you'll be the judge) :
I was dumbfounded to see at the beginning of the show a piece of news about an international crisis in which Turkey, having adopted Islamic laws under the leadership of the AKP, is said to have convicted and ordered the execution by beheading of a woman, for having sex with her co-worker, adding that the execution will create difficulties for Turkey's EU admission.
The newsclip is shown several times throughout the episode and there is no possible doubt that it is Turkey they're talking about - the Turkish flag is even displayed quite clearly on the screen, and the crisis becomes a topic of discussion among the characters.
The problem is that this is not just regular fiction, it is something that is absolutely impossible. Turkey has abandonned death penalty since 2002 and has no adultery law - contrary to the United-States, I may add.
This may seem quite trivial but this distortion of reality is extremely dangerous as it generates false ideas in an audience usually unaware of linternational politics and legal systems outside the U.S. Moreover, this episode, when shown in Europe will cause more false ideas about Turkey. In fact, this amounts to sheer racism.
At the same time, I find it particularly telling that the producers chose Turkey whereas if you think of a barbaric law system in a Muslim country, the first non-democratic country that comes to mind is Saudi Arabia which does have death penalty and adlutery law (among others). But that would have been politically incorrect and would have caused an uproar in that country which happens to sit on the largest oil reserve in the world.
I found out that the NBC's portrayal of Turkey in The West Wing did spark reactions from several Turkish politicians and diplomats, including Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who had criticized NBC and sought an apology which they were given.
Here's NBC's reaction to the contoversy (you'll be the judge) :
Jeff Zucker, president of the NBC television network, and John Wells, executive producer of the NBC series The West Wing sent an apology letter to Turkey's Ambassador to the United States Faruk Logoglu, for NBC's inaccurate portrayal of Turkey displaying the country as if it was ruled under Shariah law in a recent episode of the show, Foreign Ministry officials told the Turkish Daily News yesterday.The episode displayed the Turkish administration as ordering the beheading of a woman for committing adultery. Zucker and Wells offered their apologies to Logoglu for the unflattering portrayal and said that they had been misinformed about Turkey and its laws.
posted by Joker & Thief @ 6:53 AM
1 comments
1 Comments:
If you use html tags to italicize the title in your title, you can avoid your own bit of reality-twisting. "Racism in The West Wing" is your real subject here.
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