A seasoned NGO person in the Middle East sent me this (she does not want to be identified):
"This is unbelievable. This is how the news about Syria is made
nowadays, relying on one person, one person only supposedly in Aleppo
and via Skype. What this guys says is quoted by a news agency and is then replicated by a wide range of newspapers,
and then makes it to headlines, until it becomes a fact and starts
shaping public opinion. This guy Mohammed Saeed told AP via skype "There
is not enough food and people are trying to leave. We really need
support from the outside. There is random shelling against civilians,"
he added. "The city has pretty much run out of cooking gas, so people
are cooking on open flames or with electricity, which cuts out a lot."
Then the same quote appears in Washington Post, CBS, the Guardian, NPR, ABC news, by AP again in another article with a different byline.... the same quote, Asad, appeared almost everywhere, no exaggeration, and not necessarily on the same day, this quote doesn't die, and then this one line he uttered over skype becomes a headline.
I am not saying what he says is not correct, it might be, maybe not,
how would I know? but we have to believe it is because it is everywhere,
right? Just google the name of the guy and see for yourself. This same
person you will find out had talked to AP on 25 July and 26 July and was quoted again and again all over the globe... AP should do what Jazeera did, call him AP correspondent Mohammed Saeed. So if you want to know what is going on in Aleppo, all you have to do really is call famous Mohammed Saeed on skype. You do not need to read or watch the news anymore."
