The Media War

The Syrian Official Media has been waging a “Syria is the real victim” campaign against the Lebanese in response to what it perceives as Lebanese “aggression” and “insults.” Why are they doing this?

In a democracy, The Media and public opinion have always had a symbiotic relationship: Public opinion influences the media, but the media also shapes public opinion. Sometimes problems arise when powerful special interest groups dominate the Mass Media and transform it into a subtle brainwashing instrument. Witness Murdorch’s America, Berlusconi’s Italy and lately in Lebanon, the Hariri-Tweini Alliance.

But those problems pale in comparison to what autocratic systems can do with their own media. Syria, with its new trademark shortsightedness, is proving day after day that it is a creative “media engineer”.

When the Americans accused Syria of letting suicide bombers cross to Iraq, Syria invited the world’s press to a “border-tour”, to see for themselves the “American falsehoods”. Also, when everyone was talking about the Syrian control over the Lebanese border, Syria invited the press to “register” the “free flowing of goods across the borders”. Needless to say, both “tours” were staged and clearly meant to insult everybody’s intelligence.

Since we all know what’s really going on, why do the Syrians keep on trying?

One of the reasons is that Syria does that because it wants to mobilize the Syrian and Arab public opinion against the regime’s “enemies”. This unfortunately works sometimes. People who are presumably “intellectuals”, like Azmi Becahra, are falling for the Syrian PR machine and are thinking that Lebanon is the real aggressor.
Thankfully, Aljazeera did not subscribe to the Syrian version of events the way it did when it believed Saddam and ignored Kuwaiti and Iraqi people. But that could change. Arab Public opinion is a target of the Syrian “marketing campaign” that has a simple and appealing story line: The Lebanese are cooperating with the imperialist west and the Zionist enemy against their own Arab Brothers.

The Other reason why Syria is fabricating the news is that the Syrian regime doesn’t know about other ways of doing things. This is why it is suspicious of the free Lebanese who express anti-Syrian opinions. Who doesn’t remember the lame but famous “zoom-out” theory that came out of Bashar’s mouth to cast doubt on the amount of Lebanese who demonstrated against Syrian troops back in early March?

Unfortunately, the “puppeteer” theory is widely spread in the Arab world. This is why Gebran Tueiny, Ali Hmedeh and Nassir Assad (Anti-Syrian Lebanese commentators) can all be easily cast as “Agents”. In fact, the theory is so widespread that I sometimes get comments on this blog that I am paid by the Saudi royal family, or even more flatteringly, by the CIA.

So please allow me take this opportunity: Saad, Condoleezza, if you’re reading this, I have a discount on Anti-Syrian articles, are you interested? This is your last chance! The discount ends today.