Friday, December 23, 2016

Look at the courage of this LA Times correspondent

"To b clear, tweet re last msgs in NOT meant 2 belittle suffering. Merely counseling caution in reporting all claims in -n war."
You know what he is apologizing about? Yesterday, I pointed out that he was the only Western correspondent in Beirut who posted from Aleppo pictures of Syrians in West Aleppo celebrating X-mass and even celebrating the defeat of Syrian rebels. He was attacked and he felt obligated to offer this by way of apology.  This is incredible. This validates my theory about Western media and Syria: there is a rigid consensus and anyone who slightly deviates will be intimidated and punished.   Why does he need to explain that he did not intend to belittle suffering? If some Syrians are celebrating--for whatever reason--it is their responsibility to explain and not the correspondent who simply posted pictures from the scene.

PS I am told that I am in error that he was talking about some other post on East Aleppo and not about the pictures of X-mass in East Aleppo.