!Media and the Syrian Public: A Deadly weapon

!Media and the Syrian Public: A Deadly weapon
(Take a shot! Take a picture! Let the whole world see the bloodshed). An imperatively imploring cry that all God's creatures in today’s world heard Syrians in distress cry out and shout. Shouting screams from people under bombardment and being massacred talking to Orient's correspondents and other media present on the scene.  It was unequivocally clear that by roaring these words the Syrians' expressed determination not to let the ongoing Bashar AL-Assad's "regime" crimes and its militias’ pass unheard of, and for the whole world to witness. Thanks to the mobile phone features, thousands of young men and girls have become activists and reporters; hundreds of whom the Assad militia killed just because of a photo shot.   To describe the Syrian war as being: "The most well-documented war in history" *; it becomes clear that the Syrians were afraid that they would be subject to killing and that their urban living would be destroyed with dead silence. As it had happened with the people of Hama who were massacred in February 1982. Poor Syrians! They seem to have thought good about the international community!   They thought that the international community would not tolerate violating their human rights in such a brutal and 

!savage modus operandi, or that it would stop Assad from killing them and bring down their cities and villages in destruction

I spent a few hours going over some of the studies and articles, under my hands’ reach, the Western and Arab media had written on the Syrian revolution. Disgraceful, childish, and spiteful were the Arabic language writings. Definitely, the writings are not meant to convey knowledge. They contain a lot of misinformation and unfair stereotype generalizations.  The thing they are up to can be summed up in their wish to take revenge from one or another media out. Just because the "writer/analyst" could not have a job with that institution. Or else he may be eying for a job in one or trying to please a certain political system 

over another, or it may have been upholding a political point of view and affiliations that go against his

The Western Arabic-speaking TV media gave the Syrian demonstrators great hope: that they were on their side and they will not leave them alone, as they covered the demonstrations and adopted their point of view from the first moment the uprising began. This was the case with France 24, the BBC, and Al-Hurra channels. After four months from this coverage, however, the coverage became cautious and started airing the AL-Assad regime narratives over those communicated by the demonstrators. An inclination that gradually became clearer and gearing towards the Assad regime versions.   For some, it was argued that the Arab Christians, who sat in control of these media editing centers in the said outlets and a number of major Arab TV stations, engineered this coup. Albeit, for me I think that there was an operation commander sitting behind the scene of this tale who had given orders for a course of action to be followed. I believe the reader must have figured it out; now that the revealing facts of the tragedy and its aftermath are manifest

Generally speaking, the Western media showed interest towards the revolution in its early stages. Over time, however, it started chanting the civil war sermon and that those who were going against the Assad regime are extremist Islamists who hate the Western standards and human values at large. And that they united with extremist fighters coming over from several countries, including from the West to stand against a regime that the West itself admits to its being a criminal regime. The West, however, find it a better choice for them, in light of the brutal actions carried out by a group of extremists controlling the streets of the Syrian cities and threatening to transfer their activities to Europe; as it had been reported by their media.   For years, the Western media coverage did not hatch out from these two frameworks. They never bothered to ask:   How did it come that those fighters land in Syria? Who helped them through? And who provided them with weapons and money to expand in Syria?!   

This is what had confused the Western public about the Syrian issue; therefore they kicked it out from their concerns; after they looked upon it as a hot potato issue and stood against all things related therewith for years.   We can also maintain that the Western media's unfair coverage may be due to the Assad regime preventing the entry of Western media outlets or journalists into the country. This was except for those who it singled out to be dancing to its tune and whose outlook run in parallel with its version of the narrative. The regime notwithstanding this did assassinate a number of Western journalists who infiltrated into Syria to cover the happenings as they had really been

The main Arab channels, especially Al-Jazeera and Al-Arabiya had reservations about transmitting the demonstrations for weeks. Afterward, they fully adopted the revolution's narratives and turned them into a weapon against the AL-Assad regime. They were caught however in sharp polarizations and intersections. They picked up different political trends; each of which opposing the other; something which shored up the Arab audience outlook in general and the Syrian’s in particular. It, however, confused the possibility of creating a unified public opinion towards the grave Syrian massacre; the results of which were evident by dint of what it has ended up with. Meanwhile, the Syrians, the Arabs, and the whole world have lost a country called Syria; not to mention the Syrian people half of whom were swallowed in a diaspora with another half taken up by poverty and its woes, like disastrous physical diseases and devastating social diseases 

In Syria, profiteering media (newspapers, websites, radio stations, documentaries, and research centers ...) have spread out. Funded by Western and Arab organizations and actors, they look suspicious, corrupted, and carrying out private agendas, the objectives of which can be summarized as follows: 

 To make the Syrians look like as if they are coming from far history whose characteristics are ignorance, religious extremism, and brutal violence. Weird and insignificant incidents were focused on and used in the battle about the reality of women in particular and the community at large in general. This kind of episode was the business of the media and the documentary works funded by Western organizations. As for those funded by Arab governments, they were and are still trying to take the Syrians hostages and mercenaries and geared towards supporting their conflicts with this or that country. However, all of them came into agreement on the principle of opposing the Assad regime, whose media portrayed him as a hero and that his holy army fights fiercely millions of fighters from Al Qaeda, terrorists, and mercenaries, and that the regime kills thousands of them every day; as reported on the regime’s TV news and the headlines speak on its newspapers, depicting it as though it is fighting a global conspiracy waged against it and against Syria led by dozens of big and small countries. Countries whose goal is to destroy the modern democratic state and the oasis of religious tolerance and dialogue; the Syria it is ruling. And that after it eliminates the terrorists who target the presence of the minorities in the region which it is protecting, the country will recover, prosper and be rich!  A narrative that a sense can hardly believe in, but many Arabic-speaking media outlets in Egypt, Tunisia, and elsewhere adopted it and filled the minds of their audiences. A narrative that has found its way into a number of right-wing Western media outlets as well! 

In the case of AL-Assad, father, and son, the objective of media has never been, to tell the truth. They never cared a budge about any. Their goal was to confuse the audience to make the process of understanding what is right and what is wrong a difficult issue. A process that will give birth to a narrative that the gray people fearing the brutality of the AL-Assad's security services - should any understand the reality of the situation and decides to change it and stands with the revolution against the regime - can find help in.  Understanding will lead any of them to stand for its true color; however, deep inside their fearful substance, they do not want to take a stand for which they might pay a price!   Unfortunately, the opposition mercenary media practiced the same policy as AL-Assad’s media, but from the opposition’s point of view. Maybe this is because most of their cadres are activists who have no qualification in the media. And whose main concern is with salaries, privileges, and pleasing the funding party. A situation that resulted in their falling into several media traps, the most serious of which is the sectarian trap. {We will address this point separately), and it turned a humanitarian issue and a terrifying massacre, the size of the Syrian massacre, upside down into ridicule, jokes, and machinations engineered by a group haunted and obsessed with the lust for fame.!

Just as the social media has fed the Arab and Syrian media outlets with media materials, the equally derived analyzes, positions and opinions therefrom. The situation that the media has reached into rendered several narratives for a single event, and it hence required conflicting attitudes towards it. Something which in turn contributed to dividing the Syrian public at the beginning of the revolution into three Sections:   A supporter of the revolutionary movement, another opposing it, and a gray character who never cares for both, if he is in a coma and totally beyond what is going on, and even beyond its territorial landscape!  it is unfortunately that those who took up this standpoint had to pay dearly the most. 

Later on, the Syrian public went into fractions just as the multiple fractions of the political blocs; most of whom are naive and who have no program except for one goal: to seek to be listed on the opposition groups. Groups which de Mistura had for years been busy preparing, and which the Western and the Arab countries had been preoccupied with. The Syrians with all their classes were also absent-minded as to the major issue of their concern: freedom, and the massacre they are going through because of that, {And we will be addressing catastrophe in separate article} !? Of course, this scene gave rise to heated quarrels over the social media pages, creating isolated polarizations, each group seeking the friendship of a close-minded company and thinking and affiliation. So much so the Syrians have reached a state of complete closure, each group formed an island isolating itself from the other taking a different attitude. It even amounted to a degree that any discussion of a point of difference for some who may intrude the solitary island, whether it may be by coincidence or by force, it ends up one with blunt cursing; if in the first place the intruder had started to curse!  Words turned into killing bullets; tearing and destroying the community. So much so that putting an explanation about the concept of Syrian people has become now an intricate issue!   subsequently, over time the media discourse became directed by the views of those completely isolated islands, and it thus has become more polarized and isolated; especially the Sunni community in which a thousand islands and islands have come into being with no linking bridges!   Thus the present media reality had its tool and effect on the collective Arab awareness towards the Syrian issue. It was equally divided and had gone in conflicting viewpoint, according to its factions affiliation, and subsequently succumbed to indifference

It makes it easy to prescribe medication for disease when the diagnosis is made appropriately

 It remains to say that the media of Bashar Assad's militia stand less dangerous; because it has a long history of fabrications and telling lies. It never had or has an influence even in the heads of the Assad's loyalists themselves.   Notwithstanding the fact that the most serious risk lies in the process of false awareness in the international and Arab media, as well as in the media that is thought to be a pro-revolution

Forever and never, the solution lies in the hands of the Syrians. It is a base liar, whoever may put you across to the world’s major countries.  If we take a look into the recent US intelligence report issued on 9 of April 2021, we would know that nothing protects us all from the tragic end. The report confirms that the economic decline and humanitarian crises will aggressively upsurge in the years to come in Syria. Likewise, the conflict will further escalate and new militias will come into being and fight one another, but with Syrians’ own blood.   Hence, the indifference, polarization, and isolated islands will not protect anyone. The blood of your today’s children, just like what will unfold in the near future, and possibly for tens of years to come, will write down yet another tale of the 

massacre, but for nothing and for no purpose. Devastation, hunger, disease, degradation of people’s dignity, and indecency defilement will increase

  the onus is hence on the Syrian elites, intellectuals, businessmen as well as politicians; they need to start off looking for one another; they need to start into a battle of rational dialogue and renounce disagreement. They ought to build up a national gathering that may find it easy to have supporting international guardian that gives it a ride through. Everyone is going to be killed if we remain hostile to one another, short of talking to one another collectively

I believe that the attending situation we are going through can best demonstrate the disaster we are heading to.   United we stand divided we fall, apart from this, all in all, is no more than fancy hopes and desires

It is strange for the elites to just be acting like the man of the street. They dispersed and fragmented, and dwarfed, and isolated themselves within bubbles with no inter-communication among one another. Many businessmen, opposition figures, academic writers, and analysts have built up hostility among one another and considered whoever may disagree with their opinion as an enemy(!?) 


Just with the starting uproar of the revolution, Orient TV had about 3 thousand activists writing and sending pictures to the channel, video clips, and news from almost every street corner in Syria. The AL-Assad regime slaughtered hundreds of them!

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