Hasan found a Turkish media outlet yesterday that delivered one of the most obscure pieces of reporting you’ll find about fundraising efforts from Americans to support Turkey following the devastating earthquake that hit earlier this week.
Under a headline that Hasan said translates to “American broadcaster raises funds for Turkey,” the Turkish publication noted that iShowSpeed, who is inaccurately described as a Twitch streamer, raised $200,000 in local currency to help the country’s recovery efforts.
The report seemed to completely ignore the fact that Hasan himself set up the fundraiser that now has raised a total of more than $1.2 million, and Hasan donated $45,000 to the cause out of his own pocket.
Understanding the skewed way that media operates in Turkey, Hasan found the report somewhat humorous and tried to explain to the indoctrinated exactly why the report was so overtly biased in the way it presented facts.
“Everyone here is incredibly critical of the Turkish government,” he said. “I’m not showing you this to be like ‘oh look at how bad they’re fucking us over or whatever.”
Hasan didn’t come across as offended at the way he was left out of the report, but instead, he said that he was presenting it to viewers as a way to help educate them.
“The reason why I mention this is because it further proves how much of a grip the Turkish government has over its independent outlets,” he said.
According to Hasan, this is an example of how Turkish media censors any reporting of people that are critical of the Turkish government. Because Hasan is such an outspoken political commentator who isn’t shy when delivering harsh words about Turkey’s government, he claims media outlets in the country avoid any and all mention of him.
This led to the outlet instead talking about how iShowSpeed raised money, when in fact he donated to Hasan’s fundraiser but at a point was tricked into not donating by online trolls who told him that Hasan would steal any money he donated.
