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Turkey and the Turks are fairly invisible
from the American small screen, unless in the form of anti-Turkish feature film
presentations or documentaries where Turks almost always come across as history’s
villains… notably from America’s Public Broadcasting network, PBS. This page examines
three examples of fictional depictions on American television, over the years.
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A Rare TV Debate on the Armenian Issue
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THE FORGOTTEN GENOCIDE might have been the first Armenian program PBS aired, in the
netwok's orgasmic fervor to promote Armenian views. Probably back in 1983, PBS was
not completely corrupted over the issue, as a PBS station actually gave
"Unequal Time," in the form of a debate... pitting Justin McCarthy against
the Dean of Disinformation himself, Richard Hovannisian! Followed by a look at the
Armenian cinematic propaganda machinery, mainly "The Armenian Film
Foundation," headed by J. Michael Hagopian.
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| PBS: AN ARMENIAN JOURNEY |
The 1987 hour-long film by Ted Bogosian was
just one in a long line of Armenian programs PBS gets very excited about presenting (with
the usual help of the deep-pocketed Manoogian Foundation); a perspective by Joan Weeks.
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PBS: THE GREAT WAR
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The otherwise well-done 1996 series really got Holdwater's goat, and provided the
rare incentive to spur him into action! The relevant chapter started off by showing
the Turks as "good guys" (well.... about as much as one could expect) in
Gallipoli... and then transformed itself to a complete mouthpiece for the Armenian
Militia, in its "Genocide" segment.
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| PBS: THE ARMENIANS, A STORY OF SURVIVAL |
A thorough examination of a more recent Armenian PBS puff piece, this time from
2002. Also featuring Elie Wiesel and a Turkish Turncoat historian goaded on air to
say the magic word, "genocide." The "commercial break" with
Peter Balakian was particularly delightful.
Further thoughts on
Elie Wiesel: Wise of Wiesel?
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| PBS: The Armenian Genocide
(Parts I & II) |
An even more thorough
examination of Andrew Goldberg's genocide extravaganza from 2006, where he really pulled
out the stops... with complete cooperation from PBS, which openly admitted acceptance of
the "genocide." Preceded by a behind-the-scenes of the politics involved.
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PBS
Debate: "Armenian Genocide:
Exploring the Issues"
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PBS did its best to sabotage its own effort to present a kind of "equal
time." Many PBS affiliates nixed an airing, and pro-Armenian forces tried to
silence this show. Given that the biased producer stacked the deck in the "genocide"s
favor, the irony was thick. With the attempts at suppression, it's only proper that
a greater audience now have the option to check out the things that were said.
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| Hijacked History: "The Ottoman War Machine" |
A "big-budget" and mostly fair documentary on the History Channel turns to
propaganda for its Armenian segment. Was it pressure from ethnic Turk-hating groups? Or
was it simply the brainwashed outlook of the producers?
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