Tuesday, March 27, 2012

Covering Syria: no difference between one day and another

I have noted to you that coverage of Syria in the Western and Arab (read Saudi and Qatari-funded) press is so propagandistic that the premise of the coverage is that every day is like the day before, or even protests are more more massive. They don't allow--not for one day--the observation that maybe today it was not as intense.  They leave readers with the unrealistic impression that every protest and every strike is a huge success.  This is not true, of course, as no one talks about the open-ended strike that Western and Qatari reporters insisted would end the regime--that was months ago.  Yesterday, the Lebanese MTV proved my theory: It said during the news broadcast that developments on the ground in Syria are exactly the same, day after day.  They actually said that, verbatim.  So why the coverage: just write under the same headline "The regime is falling" this note: please see yesterday's paper to know what happened today in Syria.  It is easier and cheaper.