Syria | Shameful Performance of Western Media

• There is no accountability and it is unlikely that someone is going to write a book on the shortcomings and failures of Western media. Western media also marketed the Libya story and they were never made accountable for the lies they peddled there.
• These media have failed their readers on many levels. Their shortcomings can be summarized as follows:
• How the Media Doesn't Give Peace a Chance
• Nygaard Notes #511 | "The New American Way of War" in the Media
• "Progressive" Journalism's Legacy of Deceit

As’ad AbuKhalil, Al Akhbar English

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(Aug 7, 2012) The performance of the Western media (American, British, French and others) regarding the Syrian conflict has been quite shameful. One does not expect much from American media. Ill-informed foreign editors and correspondents and political cowardice turn American media into tools of US foreign policy.

This is especially true when it comes to coverage of the Middle East, where extra political courage and uncharacteristic level of knowledge and expertise are rather rare, even though they are essential to challenging US foreign policy. But when it comes to Syria, British media – including the liberal Guardian which has often been brave in challenging Western foreign policies and wars – have been indistinguishable from American media.

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Related:

How the Media Doesn't Give Peace a Chance, Richard Schiffman, OpEdNews

• Norwegian sociologist, Johan Galtung, the winner of the Alternative Nobel Prize in 1987, believes that the media's institutional bias toward reporting "official sources" in the government and military means that we generally only hear from those with a vested interest in the use of force, rarely from the people on the ground who will pay for their decisions in blood. The arguments for military action are framed in abstract geopolitical terms and vague appeals to "the national interest" rather than focusing on the terrible human costs of organized state violence.
• Iran: This Is What Propaganda Looks Like
• PBS's Dishonest Iran Edit
• How the Media Is Taking Us Toward War With Iran

Nygaard Notes #511 | "The New American Way of War" in the Media, Jeff Nygaard, Nygaard Notes

• "The new American way of war" is but a new strategy in service to a very old goal, which is the maintenance of the global U.S. military hegemony that began after World War II and took on new life with the demise of its only perceived rival, the Soviet Union, 20 years ago.
• Special Project | The Wars in Iraq, Afghanistan, Libya, Syria, & Iran: Week of July 29

"Progressive" Journalism's Legacy of Deceit, James Tracy, Global Research

• Given the backdrop of progressive-left journalists’ lengthy and ardent opposition to the Bush-Cheney policies of Nazi-like atrocities and plunder, venues such as Democracy Now are poised to serve as platforms for disseminating the necessary disinformation to make the Obama administration’s color revolutions and "humanitarian" policy of military interventions seem palatable to the very audiences whose sensibilities are most opposed to violence and imperialism.
• When War Is in the Air on PBS
• NATO's Presence Does Not Benefit Afghan Women