{"id":31695,"date":"2018-02-28T06:50:10","date_gmt":"2018-02-28T11:50:10","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/olduvai.ca\/?p=31695"},"modified":"2018-02-28T06:50:10","modified_gmt":"2018-02-28T11:50:10","slug":"the-authoritarians-who-silence-syria-questions","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/?p=31695","title":{"rendered":"The Authoritarians Who Silence Syria Questions"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Authoritarians Who Silence Syria Questions<\/a><\/h3>\n
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Photo by watchsmart | CC BY 2.0<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

I am loath to draw more attention to the kind of idiocy that passes for informed comment nowadays from academics and mainstream journalists. Recently I\u00a0lambasted<\/a>\u00a0Prof Richard Carver for his arguments against BDS that should have gained him an F for logic in any high school exam.<\/p>\n

Now we have to endure Brian Whitaker, the Guardian\u2019s former Middle East editor, using every ploy in the misdirection and circular logic playbook to discredit those who commit thought crimes on Syria, by raising questions both about what is really happening there and about whether we can trust the corporate media consensus banging the regime-change drum.<\/p>\n

Whitaker\u2019s arguments and assumptions may be preposterous but sadly, like Carver\u2019s, they are to be found everywhere in the mainstream \u2013 they have become so commonplace through repetition that they have gained a kind of implicit credibility. So let\u2019s unpack what Whitaker and his ilk are claiming.<\/p>\n

Whitaker\u2019s\u00a0latest outburst<\/a>\u00a0is directed against the impudence of a handful of British academics, including experts in the study of propaganda, in setting up a panel \u2013 the Working Group on Syria, Propaganda and Media \u2013 to \u201cprovide a source of reliable, informed and timely analysis for journalists, publics and policymakers\u201d on Syria. The researchers include Tim Hayward of Edinburgh University and Piers Robinson of Sheffield University.<\/p>\n

So what are Whitaker\u2019s objections to this working group? Let\u2019s run through them, with my interjections.<\/p>\n

Whitaker: They dispute almost all mainstream narratives of the Syrian conflict, especially regarding the use of chemical weapons and the role of the White Helmets search-and-rescue organisation. They are critical of western governments, western media and various humanitarian groups but show little interest in applying critical judgment to Russia\u2019s role in the conflict or to the controversial writings of several journalists who happen to share their views.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Authoritarians Who Silence Syria Questions Photo by watchsmart | CC BY 2.0 I am loath to draw more attention to the kind of idiocy that passes for informed comment nowadays from academics and mainstream journalists. Recently I\u00a0lambasted\u00a0Prof Richard Carver for his arguments against BDS that should have gained him an F for logic in […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[5,6],"tags":[18990,169,5493,17165,496,18991,776],"class_list":["post-31695","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-geopolitics","category-liberty","tag-brian-whitaker","tag-corporate-media","tag-counterpunch","tag-jonathan-cook","tag-mainstream-media","tag-richard-carver","tag-syria"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31695","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=31695"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31695\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":31696,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31695\/revisions\/31696"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=31695"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=31695"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=31695"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}