The Assad government’s censorship of private media has proven a boon for Syria’s rebel factions, which have released video footage directly to a western media that has eagerly gobbled up first hand accounts.
The problem is that the rebels have an agenda to sell, and new video evidence shows that they aren’t shy about making up facts on the ground to make the videos more exciting.
Embedded with a Syrian rebel “reporter” in Homs, one of the videos catches the reporter telling colleagues to set a tire on fire off camera so there is more smoke to simulate the “battle” he is reporting on. The smoke is real, but the battle is not, and the video pans into an alley where a tire is burning in full view.
The regime has regularly disputed the videos coming out of rebel factions, and in this case at least they seem to have a valid point. The authenticity of the footage in other videos may or may not be real, but certainly seems suspect.
Which is of course why censorship programs have backfired in many cases. Iran had the exact same problem in 2009, when opposition factions had full control over the narrative in the Western media because of a ban on private journalists. These nations may fear the agendas of Western media outlets, but the practical consequence of banning them is to replace their message with a fully opposition manufactured one.
This actually an old news, RT.com had reported this kind of staging scenario few months back, but nonetheless, these are the people that US and EU wants to place Assad with. These are the people who would make the feature for Syrian people, free syrian army, off course they are free to say and do everything lying to people around the world is one of their daily job. Saudis and UAE feeding these people, Jordanian King and Turkish government feeding and training these terrorist and liars.
The same happened in Libya (though I'm highly suspicious of the ascribed state motive, I think it's more a case of "Western journalists" fabricating events in order to support the narrative for the folks back home).
I saw lots of very shaky, grainy, blurry film, where a few dozen people could be seen, with a few dozen or so people evident on the soundtrack, while the voice over claimed to be in a street with "literally thousands of people". "Thousands of people" don't sound like a few dozen.
It's entirely possible that the events in Libya, and now Syria, were/are being manufactured in order to sell the idea of a "necessary intervention" by European/US forces.
I remember no news accounts of the horror that was Gadaffi in the months leading up to the Libyan campaign.
This in turn casts doubt on the whole Arab spring. It could have been just a few carefully made film clips and some well planted 5th columnists, agitating in preparation for Western Oil Corporation takeovers. Which is not to claim that there is no Arab yearning for freedom, rather that we have been sold a lemon by our ever deceitful Media.
From where I strand it appears that since 9/11, pretty much everything has been manufactured and packaged to achieve a political goal.
I think there's a lot in what you say salparadise. And I do not think the governments concerned Libya as was, and Syria, and Iran, can do much about it. Like you I think the phony footage is stimulated by the western imperialist governments' wishes to blacken the name of the regimes that oppose them. Journalists working with opposition groups will serve as well as anything else, I imagine. It worked for Hitler re Poland and others in the 1930's. I think we have to regard most journalists as working on behalf of the imperialist's interests. Judging by what I hear and see on the news media, this is an accurate assumption.
And of course the US media and/or government would NEVER EVER STAGE ANYTHING to look good for the cameras. (Remember Bush looking oh so Commander-In-Chiefish checking out the lay of the land with his big binoculars…. with the lens covers firmly in place?) We'd NEVER direct anything behind the scenes for a spontaneous 'we just happened to be there' moment (remember the statue of Saddam Hussein?)
Pot, meet Kettle.
Western journalists are just as bad. Remember Penny Marshall's '92 Fikret Alic photo or the coaching of interviewed refugees by Amanpour in '99.
Some documentary. They don’t even mention that Danny was thoroughly exposed as a propagandist http://youtu.be/p-DCZxsrt9I
Channel4 are gatekeepers for the Empire, just like all the MSM in the West.
Google “Syrian Girl” if you really want to know what’s going on in Syria.
this stuff is all orchestrated propaganda my friends.
Remember the whole Neda situation in Iran??……all the evidence points to that being a CIA/Mossad hit to incriminate and vilify iran and ferment rioting in the streets.
How was it that some guy in the street had bothered taking a video of some random girl for several minutes focusing right on her just before she was shot from an unknown location..?
The situation in syria is similar. The so called "oppositions" are merely Saudi, Jordanian and other gulf country jihadis and mercenaries sent to Syria with the sole purpose of instigating chaos and violence…
Fake and staged films may influence the ignorant, which in some cases may comprise the majority in some countries, but they could barely affect the thinking of those who closely follow the news and are well aware of the news publisher’s intentions. For instance, would you believe all of what you see or hear on the CNN or the Fox news, or the US mainstream media, or the government-controlled media anywhere in the world, for that matter?
For instance, if you know that a certain government is bent on toppling the Syrian regime for its own interest but not for the interests of the Syrian people, then you would be right to assume that all anti-Syrian news coming up from that source is just baseless propaganda.
Channel 4 is just covering its ass now that AJ servers were hacked and the full unedited videos have been released on YouTube.
Syrians refusal to allow independent journalists into Syria is a problem but it would not matter anyway as reporters where allowed to report freely during the Balkans wars and the same propaganda was use.
The burning tire method was used by the Croats against the Serbs to give the impression that Dubrovnik was under siege from Serb artillery fire in 1991.
hollywood failures drift to syria and make it big.