When emotionalism is permitted

Look at the articles on Syria in the Western media, websites included.  I read the other day a long piece on Syria in Foreign Policy magazine dripping of mawkish sentimentalism.  There are not even references to the presence of Al-Qa`idah and armed thuggish groups in the country.  But it made me think: Western media never ever allowed the Palestinians to express emotions in talking about their cause: to the Palestinians, Western media and academia would yell about objectivity and hide behind the cloaks of academic standards.  But on Syria, mawkish sentimentalism is permitted provided it is in one direction: in favor of the armed groups in Syria and without any deviation from Western conventional wisdom.  When Western policies are set between US and EU, it is sickening how all Western media dance to the tune without dissent.  This was the value of Anthony Shadid who I miss now daily as I read the work of his colleagues everywhere.