Saturday, May 25, 2013

Reuters changes its tune on Syria

From Nidal:  "About Reuters pretending to talk to a Hezbollah fighter in Qusayr, I just noticed that Reuters has changed its text.

For instance, here you have the original version:

which links, as it's source, to the original Reuters website:

But now, the Reuters website simply writes:
“An official close to Hezbollah told Reuters that the fighters' advances in Qusair were happening at a very slow pace.”

You also have an intermediate version, like here:
that states:
“A fighter from Hezbollah forces in Qusair told Reuters that advances were happening at a very slow pace.”
(It's still a fighter in Qusair, but not by telephone.)

So, the “information” is just the same (“very slow place” according to Hezbollah), but the source and the means has changed (from “a Hezbollah fighter in Qusayr by telephone” to “an official close to Hezbollah”) . This is professional reporting at it's best."