Media
Related: About this forumEverything They’re Telling Us About Syria….Is False?
http://whowhatwhy.com/2012/07/08/everything-theyre-telling-us-about-syria-is-false/Friday, we read in the New York Times and elsewhere about one of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad’s most important supporters and allies having defected. The impression one gets is that Assad’s government is in a state of collapse— and this gives credibility to those pushing for Assad to turn over power.
But what the media are not mentioning is that Brigadier General Manaf Tlass did not defect directly from the Assad inner circle. He had already fallen into disfavor early in the uprising and lost his command in May 2011—14 months ago. If you had that additional piece of information, you would interpret the news reports in a totally different way.
When a piece of evidence that contradicts the overall impression is absent from the reportage, the reportage itself is almost worthless.
As are reports of horrific events without adequate fact-checking and follow-up. Remember the Houla massacre? Who carried that out?
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TheWraith
(24,331 posts)Because clearly, if they imagine that "the west" is against someone, it must therefore be because they're a pure icon of goodness.
Oh, other claims being put forward by that website? The US actually secretly bombed Pan Am flight 103 to create an excuse to invade Libya decades later, Democrats are just as bad about everything as Republicans, and getting Bin Laden was a made-up media operation that never really happened. 
mazzarro
(3,450 posts)Western media are nothing but propaganda organs of their respective governments when events are happening. It is only after the fact - when the heat of the event is passed - that the media attempt to dribble out some of the facts that may not be too complimentary to the story initially advanced to support the story they peddled. So I hardly take media report as completely true and genuine in any regard. I draw my conclusions based on what I think is correct and fair and humane regardless of the story that is being pushed. I do know that there is more than one side to a story and people being oppressed today may become the monsters of tomorrow!
EgaLitE
(31 posts)How could anyone believe any of this? Its right out of the right-wing conspiracy textbook. Why would people who spend their whole lives trying to uncover the truth (and often expose oppression) not tell the truth? The fact is that Assad is killing his own people and must be stopped. They hate him, which is why the Free Syrian Army is so strong. They need our help, and you're doing a great disservice by spreading hate. And the so-called "media sources" that dishonestly report false information are hardly credible. This site surely has connections to neonazis and white supremacists. Face it Assad is a brutal fascist Hitler look-alike. His only friends are creeps like Putin and Ahmadinejad, and we already know that the Iranian likes to spread hate and fear. Stop making excuses for oppression.
Craig_Langford
(48 posts)The author of the site is himself a journalist. By your logic, since he is a journalist, and spends his life trying to uncover the truth, that would seem to preclude any bad intentions (according to you), right? Anyways, he is far from being a right-winger, and did many exposes on the Bush administration. And his articles have been published in the New Yorker, Vanity Fair, and Slate, hardly right-wing sources by any means. If you're going to throw around terms like "hate," you should have some proof.
First off, do you realize that American media, and perhaps much media around the world, is sometimes sensationalized for political ends? Surely, you might have heard of Yellow Journalism, going back all the way to Spanish-American war, or more recently the supposed "Nayirah Testimony" used to get America into the first Iraq war.
Second, Do you realize that the opposition forces aren't exactly any more humane than Assad?
Third, isn't it possible that the government has a history of initiating these sorts of "color revolutions" in order to destabilize the region, ensuring that by playing different parties against one another, e.g. the moderates vs. the Islamists, that no one group gets too powerful to challenge US hegemony?
EgaLitE
(31 posts)I knew you weren't here to debate. I debunked almost every point in that article of yours and all you could do is resort to ad-hominem attacks on me. If you were really interested in an open-minded and tolerant discussion you wouldn't have continued to defend Assad after I pointed out how biased and full of you-know-what your article was. And it's very obvious that you're a paid shill your english is awful and could not possibly be your first language.
Just so you know I've reported your account because it's obvious that you are a right-wing conspiracy theorist.
frylock
(34,825 posts)you also accused the source as being in league with neo nazis and white supremicists, without any evidence whatsoever to back up those assertions. then you have the nerve to accuse others of promoting right-wing conpiracies? moreover, you're a little new to be setting policy for "our" forum, aren't you?
AnotherMcIntosh
(11,064 posts)AnotherMcIntosh
(11,064 posts)Hateful paranoid right-wing conspiracy theorist
You served on a randomly-selected Jury of DU members which reviewed this post. The review was completed at Wed Jul 11, 2012, 03:28 PM, and the Jury voted 0-6 to LEAVE IT.
Juror #1 voted to LEAVE IT ALONE and said: No explanation given
Juror #2 voted to LEAVE IT ALONE and said: No explanation given
Juror #3 voted to LEAVE IT ALONE and said: No explanation given
Juror #4 voted to LEAVE IT ALONE and said: After thoroughly checking out the source, I wonder how the alerter got the idea this is a RW source? Did the alerter check out the source, as I just did? The author is a long-time critic of dimson and the nonexistent WMDs. I think we can handle some nonconventional viewpoints, and not have our minds explode. Oooh, a scary newbie! I vote no to censoring this.
Juror #5 voted to LEAVE IT ALONE and said: No explanation given
Juror #6 voted to LEAVE IT ALONE and said: No explanation given
AnotherMcIntosh
(11,064 posts)EgaLitE
(31 posts)Maybe I overreacted. I was suspicious of the site posted because much of its content is very similar to conspiracy theories discussed in right-wing circles. I've never heard of Russ Baker either, but I feel better now that I know he criticized Bush.
AnotherMcIntosh
(11,064 posts)Just for clarification.