Turkish Newscaster Claims Record for Worst Way to Initiate Dialogue with a Foreign Leader

It takes something pretty significant to get me to post these days.  Well, that’s not true, last time I posted all it took was International Bullshit Day.  This time though, it’s significant, in being one of those rare things you see that makes your day a whole lot more surreal:

The anchor’s name is Gokhan Taskin, and he appears every night on Nightline, a show on Turkey’s Flash TV, one of the top-10 TV stations in Turkey.  There is a translation on the page (made by the poster, also Turkish) but that translation leaves out a few key things, brought to my attention by an associate fluent in Turkish:

The whole “joke” centers around a proverb that essentially states: “He who wants something is black-faced.  He who refuses the request is a N—- or an Arab.”  While the reporter says that he means no disrespect, he goes on to state that he hopes that the proverb will not become: “He who wants something is black-faced.  He who refuses the request is Obama.”  That was the tagline for most of the broadcast.

Regarding the Armenian Genocide,  their translation is lacking.  That portion first states that there was no Armenian Genocide and goes on to argue that Obama’s position is a result of the Armenian lobby.  According to the commentator, Turkey does not know much about lobbying or such intrigues, which is why Obama has this misperception about the Armenian case.

Let’s set aside for a moment Taskin’s unenlightened, standard-issue Turkish claim that the Armenian genocide never happened.  We’ll even forgive him for saying that Turkey does not know much about lobbying.  Removing all Armeno-Turkish issues from the table, one glaring question remains.  What producer at a pseudo-major network decided it would be in their best interests to green-light this steaming turd of an idea?  TV station staffers are there for a reason, and it is to say “You know what, Bob?  Maybe bringing back a remnant from the Vaudeville era isn’t the best way to show the world what a progressive, developed country we are…”