Sorry, Turkey!
Yesterday I posted an amusing Wikileaks cable from Ankara, assuming all my readers would catch the joke (the punchline is the last paragraph). This morning I saw to my dismay that it had been reproduced, with credit to me [update: that link doesn't work anymore, and I can't find the post]--but without the punchline, which reveals it to have been an April Fool's joke.
I felt bad about that. First, if you don't know much about Turkey, you'd think what the cable describes was really happening, and while I'm not in the business of bolstering Turkey's PR, I certainly don't want to report anything that isn't to the best of my knowledge true. I thought it was clear that was joke, but I guess not.
Second, I don't want our diplomats to suffer any further embarrassment, Now's not the time for unnecessary frost on the diplomatic front; our diplomats in this region already have their hands full.
Finally, really--a joke like that based on American reality shows would hardly make America look the reliable NATO ally, would it? There are plenty of reasons to worry about Turkey, but that cable isn't one of them. It was just a diplomat having some fun, obviously in the thought that only a handful of people in the office would read it. Don't judge Turkey by it--even if it is an amusing parody.
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Sep '10
Re: Sorry, Turkey!
Well, I can't judge anyone else's reaction, but I certainly didn't think any less of Turkey as a result of the (obvious to me) April Fool's Joke, but I was quietly envious that someone with that much comedic talent was overseas with a defined benefit pension plan.
Oct '10
Re: Sorry, Turkey!
Ah, the links aren't working.
Re: Sorry, Turkey!
They're working in Turkey! Odd.
Re: Sorry, Turkey!
My reaction, too. Left me thinking--as I have since these began leaking--that I would have enjoyed a career at State. Of course, I would have been frustrated that my best lines would have been classified. There must be so much quiet satisfaction of literary vanity amid the dismay about this.