Mass Media Coverup As ISIS Advances To Capture New Stronghold, Obama SILENT (Coincidence?)

Source: Elliot Bougis 

If you haven’t noticed, “social media coming out of Aleppo has gone into overdrive.” Well-articulated video pleas alleging near-death snake their way into the mainstream. There’s just one problem: these aren’t just any civilians, but activists and filmmakers – with spots on primetime TV.

As RT News explains:

The narrative is the same each time: that an all-out genocide is taking place; that the Assad forces are going from city to city killing their own people and taking no prisoners; and that Aleppo’s rebels valiantly look death in the face as they endure alleged Russian bombardment.

The problem is that “there’s little evidence to indicate that the people appearing in the mobile videos are actual civilians” experiencing the much hyped “Russian and Syrian shelling.” Rather, “these were everything from activists to independent filmmakers who’ve made public commitments to the rebel cause” to their thousands of followers on Twitter and elsewhere.

Speaking of thousands of followers, some of these Twitter accounts had joined only weeks or even days before their on-the-ground videos went viral. Yet, strangely, despite being active for only days, they had tens of thousands of followers each, which suggests the followers were bought or the accounts were part of a much larger “psychological operation” to paint the Syrian Army’s reconquest of Aleppo in as harsh a light as possible.

In other words, the 11th-hour, bleeding heart footage is turning out to be zero-hour, cutting edge propaganda. Put on your shocked face, but it turns out the MSM is giving special attention to professionals and “sock puppet” accounts who are favorable to the American-backed ISIS insurgents.

In a recent no-holds-barred Boston Globe editorial, Stephen Kinzer throws down gauntlet on our already discredited media: “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.”

On the one hand, supposedly “moderate,” U.S.-backed militants “are wreaking havoc as they are pushed out of the city by Russian and Syrian Army forces.” In contrast, the 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 — so [why would] you want to weaken the only system that is fighting ISIS?”

The problem is that the brutality of the “moderate” anti-Assad resistance “does not fit with Washington’s narrative.” As a result, much of the American press, when it can even get real access in the Syrian battle zones, is reporting the opposite of what is actually happening. Specifically, many news reports are pushing the idea that Aleppo has been a “liberated zone” for three years but is now being pulled back into misery.

The logic is simple: Obama [GOOD] helped al-Qaeda and ISIS rebels [MODERATE] fight Assad [BAD; as a result, Aleppo became a “liberated zone” [GOOD], but now that Assad [BAD] is gaining the upper hand, Aleppo is losing the hope given to it by Obama [GOOD] and his merry band of [MODERATE] jihadis.

Americans are being told that the virtuous course in Syria is to fight the Assad regime and its Russian and Iranian partners. We are supposed to hope that a righteous coalition of Americans, Turks, Saudis, Kurds, and the “moderate opposition” will win.

This is convoluted nonsense, but Americans cannot be blamed for believing it. After all, where else should average citizens get their news if not from, well, the news?

As Kinzer explains, to hear “Washington-based reporters” tell it:

+ One potent force in Syria, al-Nusra, is made up of “rebels” or “moderates” (not that it is the local al-Qaeda franchise)

+ Saudi Arabia is aiding freedom fighters (when in fact it is a prime sponsor of ISIS)

+ Turkey has for years been running a “rat line” for foreign fighters wanting to join terror groups in Syria (but because the United States wants to stay on Turkey’s good side, we hear little about it)

+ America wants to support the secular and battle-hardened Kurds (but Turkey wants to kill them)

+ Everything Russia and Iran do in Syria is ruthless and destabilizing (because, well, that is the official line in Washington)

How does this 1984-style global distortion happen? According to an Ice Trend article, the process is as simple as it is deadly. As long as the jihadis holding power in east Aleppo could bar Western journalists, or could at least kidnap and very likely kill those who made it inside, the jihadis could replace with highly partisan “local activists” under jihadi control.

“What lovely optics you have, President Obama!” – “The better to dupe you with!”

Remember: these are the same jihadis the USA has been training, arming, and funding as the “moderate” opposition to the “radical” Syrian regime! It only makes sense that, in Obama’s final thirty days, D.C. would do everything it can to paint a heroic picture of the anti-Assad forces: they are the brave volunteers on a sinking ship, and they are backed by Obama.

By giving al-Qaeda -type groups such as Jabhat al-Nusra and Ahrar al-Sham to so much latitude in the confused and confusing fight against Syria, the Obama administration has literally established a jihadi-controlled media black hole. As long as the money and guns keep going into the hands of the anti-Assad jihadis, Obama-friendly news will keep escaping the black hole of jihadi spin.

\There was always a glaring contradiction at the heart of the position of the international media: on the one hand it was impossibly dangerous for foreign journalists to enter opposition-held areas of Syria, but at the same time independent activists were apparently allowed to operate freely by some of the most violent and merciless movements on earth.