Frederick Douglass

"Power concedes nothing without a demand. It never did, and it never will. Find out just what people will submit to, and you have found out the exact amount of injustice and wrong which will be imposed upon them..." Frederick Douglass

Tuesday, June 21, 2011

Deconstructing Journaganda

In this case Zioganda. While the people of Syria may have legitimate grievances with their government, there is a covert operation directed against Assad, who, along with Iran and Lebanon, have defiantly resisted Western imperialism. Accordingly, Western media assets have launched a disinformation campaign against him. This Jerusalem Post piece is a particularly egregious example.

First, it is a Reuters story. When I attempted to follow the link, I got a pop-up message telling me that I didn't have an internet connection. This has never happened to me before (and my connection was working just fine).

While the original was tendentious and otherwise objectionable too, the JP has made numerous changes to the Reuters story.[1] This is done industry wide, but in this case additions were also made, not quite so common.

Lets focus on JP's version.[2]

First paragraph:

Syrian President Bashar Assad issued a general amnesty on Tuesday, a day after he promised wide-ranging but vague reforms to counter a three-month popular revolt against his autocratic rule.


Have you ever heard the JP refer to Mubarak's Egyptian or Abdullah's Jordanian respective rule as autocratic? This term is reserved for independent Islamic governments only.

Later:

Rights groups say the crackdown against protesters has intensified since the first amnesty was announced on May 31 and hundreds of people have been arrested.


This paragraph contained a link which once again didn't work. Consequently, I was unable to determine who these rights groups who the JP declined to identify were, and what precisely they said (assuming they exist).

now:

Witnesses in Deraa said security forces opened fire to disperse several thousand protesters in the city's old quarter.

These "witnesses" are not identified, and no reports of injuries so presumably they shot into the air (again, if the incident occurred at all).

Next paragraph:

[The "witnesses"] took to the streets in reaction to a pro-government rally in the Mahatta area which they said employees and army forces in civilian clothes had been ordered to attend.

Quite possibly true but we will never know as the witnesses are unidentified and how they knew what they allegedly claim is left unaddressed.

Next paragraph:

Syrian security forces reportedly shot dead three people during clashes in two cities between Assad loyalists and protesters demanding his removal.

Reportedly? Doesn't the JP know? And who issued these "reports"?

Next paragraph:

Activists said the three were killed by army and security forces when they intervened on the side of Assad's supporters in the cities of Homs and in the town of Mayadeen in Deir al-Zor province near the border with Iraq.

Activists? Why would somebody who the JP would call an activist, or would self-identify as an activist, not want to go on record and thus lend credibility to the account? Particularly with such damning information as this?

This article insists that Assad's forces are gunning people down yet neither the witnesses nor victims are identified, and no effort is made to explain, let alone justify, this extraordinary omission. The basics of journalism--who, what, when, etc., corroboration--are conspicuously absent from this narrative in which absolutely no one is willing to go on record. Why? To ask such a question is to answer it, is it not?




[1] http://af.reuters.com/article/worldNews/idAFTRE7553JD20110621?pageNumber=4&virtualBrandChannel=0&sp=true

[2] http://www.jpost.com/VideoArticles/Video/Article.aspx?id=225930