Angry Arab: Promoting Syrian Propaganda (inadvertently?)

Comment by Zarathustra
From today's Angry Arab blog: 

[The biggest problem i have with Aljazeera is not political and is not that it has become a pure voice for the Arab counter-revolution and for the dreadful Saudi-Qatari alliance.  The problem is that it has become an example of bad journalism.  I tuned in this morning to watch the news and I only got propaganda.  Pure propaganda.  They basically have become like trash talk radio in the US: they open the phone lines and--unlike US trash talk radio--they treat their anonymous callers like their own correspondents and ask them questions about political developments in Syria (the country of choice these days).  And if the callers offer opinions that diverge from the agenda of Aljazeera, they are immediately shut off.  Aljazeera the other day did not even cover the speech by Nasrallah, when it used to extensively provide live coverage of his speeches.  Maybe it over did it in the past, just as it now underdoes it.   Today, they barely covered the massive demonstrations in Tahrir Square, while allowing anonymous callers to report to them on Syria.  They had a Youtube footage of a "massive demonstration" in a Syrian town when I was able to count around ten people.  When it comes to Syrian developments, one has to struggle hard.  On the one hand, you get crude and weird propaganda on Syrian regime TV (where they spend hours on technical topics, like "food security" or "irrigation in the 21st century"), and on the other hand you have the sensational and unreliable Saudi and Qatari propaganda outlets.  One suffocates in these conditions.  It is fair to say that Aljazeera suffered its most serious blow to its credibility since it went on the air.]

I am one of Angry Arabs biggest fans, and have been reading his blog for years. The Syrian revolution/uprising has been dropping the fig leaf and exposing all regimes/ intellectuals/politicians on both the right, left and in between. Today's entry (above in green ) by Angry Arab upset me, it displayed that he is incapable of  upholding the banner of righteousnesses and principleness that  he demands from the NY Times or Saudi controlled arab media on himself. From DAY ONE Angry arab has been playing the "There is a conspiracy against Syria BUT ..." card. Well in reality what conspiracy is he talking about ? so far the west and US has shown little interest in toppling the regime (they are far more enthusiastic when it came to Iraq and Libya in interfering) Israel has come saying Assad is BETTER than the alternative for their security. Everyone knows and there is ample of evidence that the Salafis and Saudis are not behind the spontaneous uprising , even if Saudi had its agenda it will not act against the wishes of its masters US/Israel , so him harping on the Saudi is illogical because it makes the Saudis an independent acting entity who will is willing to go against the will of the US/Israel and he is the first to admit that Saudi is the US enforcer in the region. As for the Syrian opposition that is collaborating with Washington and goes to Israel to consult with Netenyahu, everyone knows they are an extreme minority that will NEVER BE WELCOME in syria. So his constant claim "of course there is a conspiracy against Syria " not only is void of truth is HELPS the regime that is constantly telling its dumbed down audience that Syria is being targeted by the US/Israel for being the beacon of resistance. 

Second his take on Jazeera is about 10 years to late !! with all due respect Jazeera is a privately held company owned by the prince of Qatar , it was never an independent non sponsored station and its whole purpose for 10 years has been the NORMALIZE the arab thinking process of accepting the existence of Israel (something that he is opposed to 100%) so for him to only discover the "evil" jazeera as a tool of the US to counter the Arab revolutions show he is a little. What he ignored is that in order for Jazeera to play that role it must get the trust of the Millions of Arabs and it had to do it , so they showed us the massacres of Israel in Palestine and Lebanon and had the likes of Chomsky/Finkelstein/Said/Bishara to talk about the conflict ...etc Jazeera was being groomed to cease the moment when it had too , and it is doing that now. 

Again his constant harp on Jazeera now is also playing in the regime favor who claims that it is responsible for the incitement of violence in Syria , he keeps making fun of anonymous calls from Syria as well , how disappointing  of him !! He knows that people are getting arrested and tortured and killed for speaking anything but the regime lines and people are risking their lives to actually speak. He also knows the regime has closed down the country and no one can be interviewed, so what is that Jazeera or BBC to do ? He then dares to say "And if the callers offer opinions that diverge from the agenda of Aljazeera, they are immediately shut off" Jazeera agenda has been taking the people's side and they are SICK and TIRED of cheap lame lies that the Syrian callers who are pro regime spit on a daily basis. NO one takes them seriously , they are the equivalent of spams in blogs and ad pop ups on your browser THERE IS NO ROOM FOR TRASH . He makes it sound like you are getting legitimate calls with logical perspectives that are worth hearing. I have yet to hear a single pro regime person who actually makes sense and is not lying. Compare his perspective to Azmi Bishara today who said "the people who are getting paid by the regime to speak its propaganda on the air waves"...

He also made fun of the sizes of the demonstrations in Syria !! keep in mind we all saw tanks and some of the most vicious attacks ever facing demonstrators , so yes Angry Arab when people are risking their lives to go out by either getting a bullet in the head or getting arrested and tortured to death SIZE DOES MATTER , the 10's of Syrians going out are the equivalent of 1000's of Egyptians  , no one not has faced the barbarity of the Syrian regime , no one has ever seen 13 year boys tortured to death in one of the most elaborate modern terror campaigns against a defenseless population. 

Then he talks about how Jazeera did not cover Hassan Nasrallah's speech , well I think that did A HUGE service to his excellency. Could you imagine the reaction of the Arab world when they see young men beaten to death in Hamma and boys tortured to death in Daraa and then his excellency telling the Syrians to "support the regime for the sake of the resistance" ? Any 5 year old Arab knows the absurdity of both "Syrian regime resistance" and for someone to have the Chutzpah to call on its support !! Jazeera did him a favor actually, he is already losing respect and credibility at an exponential rate so seeing him live would have done nothing but expedited the process and dropped another fig leaf faster.

In an earlier post he praised Nassralah's speech style and said it was "effective" and "sarcastic"... This is the same person that criticized obama for being all style and no substance praising Nasrallah who is turning into an all style no substance demagogue  in front of our eyes (granted he criticized the content of his speech but like every Nasrallah speech he must find something positive to say and this last time Angry arab was reduced to praising Style because there was nothing else to praise about it)

When looking at the events that are unfolding in Syria, we have to praise the steadfastness of the Syrian people and their courage, for they were able to drop the masks and fig leafs on all the parties involved , and sadly Angry Arab instead of joining the people and supporting them full heartedly he has given them minimal support with constant reference to conspiracies and foreign agendas that the regime is playing to death. While I understand the regime and why it is adopting that line, Angry Arab's position is perplexing.