A foreign policy expert assailed the mainstream media’s “convoluted” coverage of the conflict in Syria, suggesting the media is serving the agenda of the power elite.
Stephen Kinzer, a senior fellow at the Watson Institute for International Studies at Brown University, claimed the mainstream media’s coverage of the conflict in Syria “will be remembered as one of the most shameful episodes in the history of the American press.”
“Journalism…is supposed to remain apart from the power elite and its inbred mendacity. In this crisis it has failed miserably,” he noted.
Despite the continued effort to demonize the Syrian government and Russian forces for the suffering in Aleppo, Kinzer correctly noted the conflict began when “violent militants” overran Aleppo three years ago and began “a wave of repression.”
“They posted notices warning residents: ‘Don’t send your children to school. If you do, we will get the backpack and you will get the coffin,’” he wrote. “Then they destroyed factories, hoping that unemployed workers would have no recourse other than to become fighters. They trucked looted machinery to Turkey and sold it.”
As the Syrian army, backed by Russian air power, continues to make progress in dislodging rebel forces from Aleppo, “militants, true to form, are wreaking havoc as they are pushed out of the city.”
Reporting the facts about the Syrian civil war does not fit with the narrative promoted by the power elite, according to Kinzer.
“Americans are being told that the virtuous course in Syria is to fight the Assad regime and its Russian and Iranian partners. We are supposed to hope that a righteous coalition of Americans, Turks, Saudis, Kurds, and the ‘moderate opposition’ will win,” he wrote.
“This is convoluted nonsense, but Americans cannot be blamed for believing it. We have almost no real information about the combatants, their goals, or their tactics. Much blame for this lies with our media.”
The mainstream media’s unwillingness to report without first passing their story through “that soiled carousel” of officials at the White House, Pentagon, State Department and foreign policy think tanks.
“Saudi Arabia is portrayed as aiding freedom fighters when in fact it is a prime sponsor of ISIS,” Kinzer noted. “Turkey has for years been running a ‘rat line’ for foreign fighters wanting to join terror groups in Syria, but because the United States wants to stay on Turkey’s good side, we hear little about it.”
“Everything Russia and Iran do in Syria is described as negative and destabilizing, simply because it is they who are doing it — and because that is the official line in Washington,” he added.
The narrative promoted by the global elite in Syria is “appallingly distant from reality,” Kinzer lamented. “It is also likely to prolong the war and condemn more Syrians to suffering and death.”
The Emergency Election Sale is now live! Get 30% to 60% off our most popular products today!