Reunify with the night. To face the consequences one of 150 gates taiwans determination to remain independent on aljazeera. Syrian border were Turkish Military action that could account for a. Couple of things that might. Surprise these troops are serious kurds. Replied. Hello im Richard Burton youre at the listening post here are some of the stories that were covering this week turkey launches a military offensive against kurds in syria. And a media offensive designed to justify it 2 years after the birth of the me too movement the stories keep coming in the us the suits at n. B. C. News have a lot of explaining to the media and the troubling depiction of skin color black face is a racist entertainment device still used across the middle east and in india dark faces are few and far between on the air or on the silver screen. Cease fire or no cease fire turkeys decision to change the military equation in syria to send fresh troops in to take on Kurdish Forces there just as the kurds American Allies and protectors pull out is a geo political game changer but its an extraordinarily complex story for journalists to unpick the talk in the western Media Outlets like n. B. C. Your own news the Washington Post has been of americans Double Crossing the kurds kurdish fears of a possible ethnic cleansing even a looming genocide the narrative that the heir to one government in on correct has tried to get out there that Kurdish Forces on its southern border pose a mortal threat has been lost on the western commentary president air towards messaging is far. Better received at home thanks in large part to domestic Media Outlets that learned long ago they criticize this government at their own peril even reporting or posting on this story online can be dangerous dozens of turks have been arrested for doing just that our starting point this week is the turkish syrian border. Throughout syrias civil war the countrys borders have not changed but the demographics within those borders have drastic. When the war began in 2011 serious kurdish minority was spread in pockets along the border with turkey over the 8 and a half years of fighting kurdish militias have gradually taken control of almost 400 kilometers of territory along that border the turkish government now looks at its Southern Front and sees potential enemies at the gates what it calls a terror block at its border it says it wants to turn that area into a safe so a place refugees currently in turkey can relocate to in syria the turkish offensive has a lot to do specifically would turkeys policy regarding this one Kurdish Group known as Peoples Protection units thats also known as y p g d y p g is an offshoot of another Kurdish Group that is known as the p. K. K p k k is a designated terror entity theater as such not just by turkey but United States and all other nato allies so this was in turkey is attempt to go after this group that do not just settle on supporters but many turks view as a sworn enemy of turkey starting from 2014 the syrian Kurdish Forces and marked on a project off establishing an autonomous kurdish region and from the turkish point of view that is the 1st step to establishing a curate. State along turkeys border which is very frightening to turkey so in the turkish mind western Media Coverage of turkeys military incursion which is largely a pro kurdish is just the latest indication that that the western world does not understand turkeys security concerns. We conducted 4 interviews on the narratives driving the coverage of this story with turkish academics based in washington both are frequent critics of the early one government although one of them says the incursion into syria is justifiable we also spoke with an iranian american journalist working out of this town hall for a british newspaper and journalist academic and iraqi kurd now based in pennsylvania. The turkish government has really had a very Monumental Task crafting a narrative that would be convincing to the world Public Opinion and also to the International Sort of power circles the narrative is really focused on fighting terrorism we said we would never allow a terror corridor or to form on our border the other element of this narrative is really centered on the refugee crisis governments are really worried about a major influx of Syrian Refugees into europe are you prepared for what might in fact be a massacre a senior president ial aide. Was on c. N. N. Explaining why it is necessary for turkey to launch this intrusion this is not an operation against syria and the white equal to the which is the terrorist organization but she was still not as effective as the turkish government wished because this is a part of a larger problem and that problem is present are gone lost his credibility and the rising. Sure in this image an International Media is making things even harder well you know the kurds are theyre good fighters theyre great people and they have a lot of pride for their land where they are they are seen as Freedom Fighters in the western media so i think its making it very difficult for the turkish government to convince the International Community that this is a just war the thing is northeast syria was mostly stable until a couple weeks ago yeah there was a little bit of trouble there some questions about the administration of northeast syria but it wasnt like an imminent crisis and when you start a war like that it becomes a sort of a war of choice and so i think the turks are discovering what the israelis discover every time they make an incursion into gaza or 11 on when you launch a full scale operation like this and theres no imminent dire threat youre the burden of kind of explaining it to the world is on you and not the people that youre at war with. In its dealings with the International Media the heir to one government is also dealing with a case of journalistic blowback. According to the new york based committee to protect journalists turkey has jailed more media workers than any country on the planet a failed coup 4 years ago accelerated a crackdown on journalism that was already well underway the online space offers no real refuge dozens of turks have been arrested for posting criticisms of this military operation. And the turkish government that has treated its own journalists unjustly says it is now failing to get a fair hearing from international Media Outlets that are suspicious of just about anything on caress says or does. The biggest challenge for turkey is that because the limitations inside the country and freedom of expression and freedom of media are so severe outside observers often dismiss any story that comes out turkey as spin as unreliable as fabricated by the government turkish correspondents when theyre on air whenever they refer to the p. K. K. Or the y p g they have to refer to as a terrorist organization. Not just on the 1st reference not just on the 2nd reference. But on every single reference. That its almost soviet in that respect while the turks the turkish Media Outlets are very good at covering civilian casualties and suffering turkish side in these counterattacks they dont seem to be interested or are able to report at all on the suffering of civilians on the other side doesnt seem like any of that is allowed into the broadcast media. Then theres the online misinformation factor is a Fact Checking site based in istanbul among the posts it has exposed this fake this past week a video allegedly showing kurds killed in turkish airstrikes but was actually shot in egypt 2 years ago this video of missile attacks again allegedly by Turkish Forces shot in siberia in 2010. This military offensive is barely a week old and the truth is already amongst the casualties between the restrictions on turkish media crackdown on protesters im online the broad brush approach of the International MediaRegional News outlets at odds with each other not to mention the age old fog of war what chance do audiences really have of understanding this story given the fast pace of developments on the ground. The western media jumps on stories and if you do footage is without a properly vetting them recently there was an incident with the a. B. C. News which ran a story this video obtained by a. B. C. About a turkish assault on on the kurds using a video footage which turned out to have been shot in the United States last year and the leg off credible coverage by International Media which is making it even more difficult for the people who are trying to understand what is going on on the ground the syrian situation has been a very complicated a story its not very easy to get it right when it comes to the political actors the coverage has not been really event but i think the the focus on the civilian aspect is really what costs here is its about telling the stories of those human beings on the ground and what is happening to them the more aired on cracks on our media the more turkey loses a narrative we have to be honest about this or that is because the people look at turkey as a cold and cold autocratic regime and therefore they dismiss any information coming out of turkey or spin and propaganda so if turkey wants to regain their narrative regarding the p. K. K. And the broader kurdish issue it is in turkeys interests to have a free and flourishing media. Were discussing other media stories that are on our radar this week with one of our producers flo phillips outflow this past week we saw one of those rare spectacles in the media a journalist on the air calling out his networks own bosses the story happen in the u. S. And it was related to the Harvey Weinstein meet to movement walk us through it thats right richard so chris hayes is the host of a Current Affairs show on m. S. N. B c thats a Cable Network owned by n. B. C. Universal and its n. B. C. And some of its executives in particular but hayes has a bone to pick with the insidious Destructive Force of the path of least resistance is everywhere you look back and i feel the tug of it myself as my own News Organization is embroiled in a very public controversy over its conduct now hayes was talking about the allegations made in a new book by ronan firing youll remember that far as the journalist that had the story of hollywood producer Harvey Weinstein sexually assaulting and exploiting numerous women but the story was actually 1st published in the New York Times because fire is bosses at n. B. C. Refused to go with his version now for i did end up getting his workout in the new yorker magazine and the me too movement was born in fire his new book titled catch and kill lies spies and a conspiracy to protect predators he says that his former bosses at n. B. C. Ordered him to halt his weinstein reporting because they were intimidated by weinsteins power and specifically because weinstein himself had threatened to expose Sexual Assault allegations against one of n. B. C. s own high profile presented allow. When those allegations against lauer did eventually come out in 2017 n. B. C. Follett him but according to fire theyve been working to cover up the alleged assaults by both lauer and weinstein his has again if there is you he was unable to break through what was effectively a conspiracy of silence from n. B. C. News management time and again the path of least resistance for those with power was to not cross weinstein or his army of friends and lawyers so whats n. B. C. News is response to all of this been the president of n. B. C. News no open heim send employees a memo describing fires allegations as a Conspiracy Theory and fries but contain another bombshell Sexual Harassment allegations against the companys chairman andrew lack he denies he did anything wrong and lack as the head of the News Division just happens to be in a position to decide whether chris hayes will pay a price for putting on the story on emmis n. B. C. s ok thanks for turning now to a practice a problematic anachronistic one that keeps cropping up in modern media black face white or light skinned people caricaturing those of african descent by darkening their faces with the actual makeup its a supposedly entertainment device from a bygone era and while across much of the western world it no longer features in mainstream art or entertainment in the middle east you dont have to go back in time to find this stuff blackface and caricature of depictions of black people still go out on the air and in most cases they are not even seen as offensive particularly in egypt which is home to a sizable newbie in minority black a gypsy and who originated from the southern end of the country or from Northern Sudan the listening posts tarakan often now on the persisting troubling use of blackface and the stain that leaves on Media Outlets in the arab world. It is crude eye of a storm is. Negative it is offensive. And its ugly. In the arab world racist depictions of black people are rampant in 2nd. And the use of blackface is right. Black people are routinely cast into subservience playing servants prostitutes or by showing a straight up object of ridicule. And then at that cut out oh mother who have used when we watch t. V. Shows all movies black people are always inferior and black faces an inferior negative and racist concept which should not belong in the arab world we almost never speak about this segment of out of Society Black people firstly because they never get to speak in public spaces the black person is a citizen in the arab world but an invisible citizen why because power made him invisible in. The arab world is entirely self righteous we would never admit that racist lebanese would never admit the races libyans they would never admit the races in people from so then they would never admit that the us is against their own black people and so it was only through your creating the explosive maybe. Once or realizing ok something. Really awful going on in. Blackface is a practice rooted in the 19th century United States white black and asking to mimic enslaved africans on further plantations creating a stereotype of lazy ignorant black people how black race and the arab mainstream is now. Certain british colonizes a thought to have brought it to egypt in the 1880. 00 s but its in the middle east or in the west blackface is rooted in flavor and racism reinforcing a toxic notion that blackness be the best the joke. From western politicians to media personalities i mean truly Political Correctness has gone amok to even a jumper designed by gucci blackface scandal of all over the news social norms have moved slowly by comparison in the middle east things are changing however take the case of shame out say a star on the arab worlds most widely watched Media Network n. B. C. A skit she performed live this year caused a story online shame a safe is sitting in the front of a van and shes speaking just its not comprehensible arabic its not concept principle anything. This awful overly sexualized nonsense dialect that is an attempt i think to represent the sudanese dialect and its very offensive in the other video there is shame how without a purportedly her little boy. Who constantly has to go to the bathroom and she has him urinate in a jar and when he does so people are horrified and said. I cannot imagine a woman wiping the urine off of her hands on to other passengers