The Challenge of the Empty Interview

And the fraidy-cat media

The challenge of the empty interview has been omnipresent in virtually every media report about Fetullah Gulen and his cult to date. With the exception of the Philadelphia Enquirer story by Claudio Gatti and Martha Woodall, the mainstream media has unabashedly skirted some extraordinarily provocative issues surrounding Gulen and his cult.

Although, Stephanie Saul of the New York Times touched on the Gulen affiliated charter schools and their nefarious activities in Texas, Saul selectively edited out the stuff of substance that might just make our lawmakers and taxpayers do something constructive with the information other than use the newspaper story to line their cat litter boxes.

And Lesley Stahl of 60 Minutes had an arsenal of documented and verified information on their illegal activities that she could have torpedoed the boys with, but instead chose the BB gun route of least resistance – a sort of bruising versus a full-fledged attack on their credibility.

So what is the deal with the media – why are they so fearful of reprisal when it comes to these Turkish gangsters? They can chew on a story like a dog with a bone when they want to report about a woman who tans too much or a politician screwing around with a hooker (like that is ever current news), but when it comes down to the real stuff – like the criminal activities of the Gulen hooligans for the past 11 years, they frost, package, and sell it to us like a package of Ding-Dongs. You know that there is some really bad stuff inside that package but you eat it anyway - -just not all of it. You leave a few crumbs here and there, just enough to leave a taste or two…

Like the Ding-Dongs, the media leaves us with a few crumbs of inflammatory information, just enough to wet our appetites for the next Gulen story, but never enough substance to devour the reality of what the Gulenites are actually doing. Instead, we are perpetually left wondering – exactly what does this mean, and who are they, and what are they up to – now?

We get it, everyone is afraid of the big bad wolf, terrified of lawsuits and other intimidation tactics that Gulen’s thugs are so practiced at, but who cares?

Because here’s the real deal, the truth cannot be suppressed unless we allow it to be.

And let them deny it, let them file lawsuits and defend themselves. Let the public in for a change so that we can make informed decisions about -- if and how --we want our tax-funded schools operated, instead of simply defaulting to the boys by way of unapprised proxy.

So here’s what we’re saying – step away from the hovercraft and do some serious journalism for a change, and expose these crooks for the people they truly are and not what the media wants them to be – simply because it is easier and litigious free.

Pick up all of those edited pages that are safely hidden from public scrutiny and publish the truth – and leave the tanning lady alone to bake away… her skin is clearly thicker and more resilent than that of the journalists covering the Gulen boys.