So here's why I become disturbed about Democracy Now's coverage sometimes.
And by the way, have you noticed Amy's complete silence on Julian Assange's
trial? I remember when she used to interview him regularly. That stopped
when he was dragged into the Russiagate hysteria. But that's not what I
meant to write about now. This morning, Democracy Now covered a story about
Syrian refugees. Amy interviewed a doctor from Doctors Without Borders. The
bare facts are that Idlib has been under the control of Islamist extremist ,
offshoots from Al Qaeda and Isis, backed by Turkey and the US. The Syrian
government, which is a secular government, has been fighting with the
Islamist rebels for control of its territory. It is receiving military
assistance from Russia, which it has requested. As in any war, a huge number
of civilians are suffering as a result of the conflict. My problem is with
how the story was framed which was that there are all these poor Syrian
children, freezing to death as a result of Russian backed Syrian bombing,
and Turkey may be asked to open its borders to the refugees, but this will
be a problem for Turkey. In Democracy Now's presentation, Russia and Syria
are villains and Turkey might be the savior, if it were possible. Every
time Democracy Now does a story on Syria, the same kinds of distortions are
included. I haven't heard an objective journalistic report since Patrick
Coburn was on the program in 2012 to give an alternative view from that of a
representative of The Free Syrian Army. Back then, Democracy Now never told
us just who comprised The Free Syrian Army or that the US had been giving it
covert military help for a year by then.
Miriam
