{"id":181882,"date":"2016-02-22T20:18:00","date_gmt":"2016-02-23T01:18:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/2016\/02\/22\/i-did-not-expect-this-from-the-boston-globe\/"},"modified":"2016-02-22T20:18:00","modified_gmt":"2016-02-23T01:18:00","slug":"i-did-not-expect-this-from-the-boston-globe","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/2016\/02\/22\/i-did-not-expect-this-from-the-boston-globe\/","title":{"rendered":"I Did Not Expect This from The Boston Globe"},"content":{"rendered":"

It’s not the editorial board, but they just published an OP\/ED calling out our incoherent and contradictory and ineffective policy in Syria<\/a>:<\/p>\n

Coverage of the Syrian war will be remembered as one of the most shameful episodes in the history of the American press. Reporting about carnage in the ancient city of Aleppo is the latest reason why.<\/span>

<\/span>For three years, violent militants have run Aleppo. Their rule began with a wave of repression. They posted notices warning residents: \u201cDon\u2019t send your children to school. If you do, we will get the backpack and you will get the coffin.\u201d Then they destroyed factories, hoping that unemployed workers would have no recourse other than to become fighters. They trucked looted machinery to Turkey and sold it.<\/span>

<\/span>This month, people in Aleppo have finally seen glimmers of hope. The Syrian army and its allies have been pushing militants out of the city. Last week they reclaimed the main power plant. Regular electricity may soon be restored. The militants\u2019 hold on the city could be ending.<\/span>

<\/span>Militants, true to form, are wreaking havoc as they are pushed out of the city by Russian and Syrian Army forces. \u201cTurkish-Saudi backed \u2018moderate rebels\u2019 showered the residential neighborhoods of Aleppo with unguided rockets and gas jars,\u201d one Aleppo resident wrote on social media. The Beirut-based analyst Marwa Osma asked, \u201cThe Syrian Arab Army, which is led by President Bashar Assad, is the only force on the ground, along with their allies, who are fighting ISIS \u2014 so you want to weaken the only system that is fighting ISIS?\u201d<\/span>

<\/span>This does not fit with Washington\u2019s narrative. As a result, much of the American press is reporting the opposite of what is actually happening. Many news reports suggest that Aleppo has been a \u201cliberated zone\u201d for three years but is now being pulled back into misery.<\/span>

<\/span>\u2026\u2026\u2026<\/span>

<\/span>Washington-based reporters tell us that one potent force in Syria, al-Nusra, is made up of \u201crebels\u201d or \u201cmoderates,\u201d not that it is the local al-Qaeda franchise. Saudi Arabia is portrayed as aiding freedom fighters when in fact it is a prime sponsor of ISIS. Turkey has for years been running a \u201crat line\u201d for foreign fighters wanting to join terror groups in Syria, but because the United States wants to stay on Turkey\u2019s good side, we hear little about it. Nor are we often reminded that although we want to support the secular and battle-hardened Kurds, Turkey wants to kill them. Everything Russia and Iran do in Syria is described as negative and destabilizing, simply because it is they who are doing it \u2014 and because that is the official line in Washington.<\/span>

<\/span>\u2026\u2026\u2026<\/span>

<\/span>Politicians may be forgiven for distorting their past actions. Governments may also be excused for promoting whatever narrative they believe best suits them. Journalism, however, is supposed to remain apart from the power elite and its inbred mendacity. In this crisis it has failed miserably.<\/span>

<\/span>Americans are said to be ignorant of the world. We are, but so are people in other countries. If people in Bhutan or Bolivia misunderstand Syria, however, that has no real effect. Our ignorance is more dangerous, because we act on it. The United States has the power to decree the death of nations. It can do so with popular support because many Americans \u2014 and many journalists \u2014 are content with the official story. In Syria, it is: \u201cFight Assad, Russia, and Iran! Join with our Turkish, Saudi, and Kurdish friends to support peace!\u201d This is appallingly distant from reality. It is also likely to prolong the war and condemn more Syrians to suffering and death.<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

This is the sort of thing I would expect to see in the Guardian<\/i> or the BBC<\/i>, not in a major US paper with a closet full of Pulitzers.<\/p>\n

Our incoherent policies, and our “allies” who work for terrorists are generally terra incognita for our mainstream media.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It’s not the editorial board, but they just published an OP\/ED calling out our incoherent and contradictory and ineffective policy in Syria: Coverage of the Syrian war will be remembered as one of the most shameful episodes in the history of the American press. Reporting about carnage in the ancient city of Aleppo is the …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[981,1002,1129,980],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-181882","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-civil-war","category-good-writing","category-journalism","category-syria"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/181882"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=181882"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/181882\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=181882"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=181882"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=181882"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}