Journalism for a cause challenges professional norms

This is the first time I have disclosed it. It was in the 1990s, it was a bayram (holiday) morning. I had been expelled from Antalya by my boss, Aydın Doğan, in the presence of my wife.

When I learned that the editors-in-chief of dailies Star, Akşam and Güneş were recently removed, I remembered this incident. I'll tell you why.

Those who are defending these three colleagues of ours, almost all of them, mention a “common cause.” All of them have the disappointment of the rebels who started the Cuba Revolution with the Moncada Raid. The first heroes of the war now have a common feeling of having been dismissed by “turncoats” such as Yiğit Bulut, who came from the other neighborhood.

I understand that feeling.

If you really see yourself not as a journalist, but as a “fighter of a cause,” then it is normal for you to explain this conduct with a “betrayal” psychology.

Well, what is this “cause” that has been going on for 12 years? This war, which is still ongoing, who is that war being fought against? And why are they not talking about journalism at all? It is because if they associate the incident with journalism, instead of a cause, then these questions will appear:

-    Look, you were heading papers that supported the government. It is your most democratic right to support the government. Moreover, looking at the votes it has gained, the government you are supporting is politically successful.

-     Well, why can’t the newspapers that support the government, which received 43 percent of the votes of the people, even reach 20 percent of the total circulation figures in the country?

-    Why, despite the money piled up by trucks in the "pool," have Star’s sales...