This is how the ignorant US media cover foreign stories. 1) they operate on the notion that there are good guys and bad guys: and the distinction is based not on humanitarian or even ideological standards but on the political standards of the government in power. 2) They send a correspondent who does not know the language of the country and who knows nothing about the culture or background and he/she merely produces what he/she is told about the subject by an official propagandist of the groups that is subservient to US policies. 3) the correspondent is too ignorant to be able to distinguish truths from falsehoods in the propaganda. Here is a good example:
1) "Syria alShaab TV has become a prime mover of news on the Syrian rebellion". No it is not. But this sentence tells me that it is certainly receiving Western money, just as Hurra TV is described as widely watched even though it is now officially dead. It is not even mentioned anymore and most people who had started with the network have left already.
2)""Here" is an Arab capital that al-Khatib and his colleagues requested not be named because they worry about the long arm of the Syrian secret service." Well, if it is an Arab capital why would they not name it? Many channels from Saudi Arabia (like Wisal) are known (more known) and they don't seem to be afraid of the long arm of the Syrian mukhabarat.
3) "Druze playwright Reem Fleehan is a familiar face to Arab TV viewers." No, o really ignorant correspondent. No one knows who Reem Fleehan is but your informants told you that and you just wrote it in. Have you, o traveling correspondent, ever heard of her before?
4) "Like Fleehan, Al-Khatib is free to use his real name because he is already a wanted man. In September, a regime defector sneaked out a list of 2,500 people wanted by Syrian intelligence. Al-Khatib's name and those of his mother and father were listed, in his case for being an "instigator" and "participant" in the unrest. In April, the Assad regime bombarded Taftanaz, al-Khatib's home town, destroying 300 homes and arresting hundreds of people. Two of al-Khatib's cousins were killed. Agents went to his parents' home and told them to tell al-Khatib to get off the air or his family would face the consequences, he said. He stayed off the air for three days to give his family time to flee to Turkey." This is most likely a fabrication because no one knows who Al-Khatib is and the lousy Syrian regime would thus have not reason to worry about him.
1) "Syria alShaab TV has become a prime mover of news on the Syrian rebellion". No it is not. But this sentence tells me that it is certainly receiving Western money, just as Hurra TV is described as widely watched even though it is now officially dead. It is not even mentioned anymore and most people who had started with the network have left already.
2)""Here" is an Arab capital that al-Khatib and his colleagues requested not be named because they worry about the long arm of the Syrian secret service." Well, if it is an Arab capital why would they not name it? Many channels from Saudi Arabia (like Wisal) are known (more known) and they don't seem to be afraid of the long arm of the Syrian mukhabarat.
3) "Druze playwright Reem Fleehan is a familiar face to Arab TV viewers." No, o really ignorant correspondent. No one knows who Reem Fleehan is but your informants told you that and you just wrote it in. Have you, o traveling correspondent, ever heard of her before?
4) "Like Fleehan, Al-Khatib is free to use his real name because he is already a wanted man. In September, a regime defector sneaked out a list of 2,500 people wanted by Syrian intelligence. Al-Khatib's name and those of his mother and father were listed, in his case for being an "instigator" and "participant" in the unrest. In April, the Assad regime bombarded Taftanaz, al-Khatib's home town, destroying 300 homes and arresting hundreds of people. Two of al-Khatib's cousins were killed. Agents went to his parents' home and told them to tell al-Khatib to get off the air or his family would face the consequences, he said. He stayed off the air for three days to give his family time to flee to Turkey." This is most likely a fabrication because no one knows who Al-Khatib is and the lousy Syrian regime would thus have not reason to worry about him.
