Where Brian Whitaker is getting his information on Syria

I saw on Twitter that Brian Whitaker is excitedly promoting a story about the flight of Bashshar's sister from Syria.  I clicked on the link and to my astonishment I found this source for his story:  "an informed source told Al Arabiya English on Tuesday."  Two years ago, such a source would have been dismissed in mainstream Western liberal media.  And did people notice that Al-Arabiyya (the news station of King Fahd's brother-in-law) is promoting the story in the English section but not in the Arabic section?  And informed source for Al-Arabiyyah means a high ranking office in the Saudi intelligence apparatus, or it is often a bodyguard of a traveling prince.