Western liberal journalists and Syria

Since I came to the US in 1983, I never ever saw Western journalists acting as propagandists on behalf of a Middle East cause--other than for Israel, of course--as I see them now on behalf of the Free Syrian Army.  You see respected journalists, like Brian Whitaker and many others on Twitter, acting not as analysts or commentators anymore but as mere propagandists for the UnFree Syrian Army and the Syrian National Council.  What is funny is that some of those folks mocked and criticized those Western journalists who had championed the cause of the Iraqi National Council.  I guess it was personal for those people: they don't like Chalabi while they found people they like in the Syrian exile opposition?