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Stuart J. Hooper
21st Century Wire
Is 2015 the year that we can finally lay Western mainstream media ‘journalism’ to rest?
Watch a video of this report here:
The Guardian is claiming that ‘at least four hospitals have been bombed … since Russia’s intervention in the war‘ in Syria began and says ‘international medical organisations have repeatedly claimed that medical facilities in opposition areas have been systematically targeted’.
It cites Physicians for Human Rights, who claim that attacks have occurred ‘since protests against the regime of Bashar al-Assad began in March 2011 until the end of August 2015.’ This seems to suggest that nothing except ‘protests’ have been sought out for bombing by Assad, ignoring the fact that ‘moderates’ have never existed in what is unquestionably a war; not a series of ‘protests’.
The Director of Medical Relief in Syria, Khaled Almilaji, says the world needs to start getting angry with Russia and claims they are far ‘more accurate’ in their bombings of hospitals than Assad:
“The whole world has to be just as angry as they were with what happened in Afghanistan. Their anger must not just be directed at Bashar, who has been inhuman with us, but also at the Russians, who are just as bad, but more accurate in their targeting.”
Mr. Almilaji would, perhaps, find a friend in the BBC’s John Simpson who recently tried, although spectacularly unsuccessfully, to call Putin an aggressor. Such actions are an obvious reaction to the embarrassment that Russia’s highly successful air campaign has caused the West.
The Su-34s are concerned with bombing terrorists, not civilians. (Photo Credit: Alex Beltyukov)
For some reason, The Guardian does not provide us with any images or video clips of the carnage that they claim has occurred at these hospitals, except a shaky video ‘purporting to show a Russian airstrike’ from ‘@Johnyrocket69‘ (obviously a highly reliable source) that shows an explosion in an open square.
Where is the continuity? Did we not just hear that the Russians were ‘more accurate in their targeting’?
This is in massive contrast to the extensive media coverage of NATO’s bombing of a hospital in Afghanistan just a few weeks ago.
That is not to say that the outlet does not have any evidence at all, as they do have this rock solid statement from a certain Dr Tennari:
“I think it was Russian.“
Case closed?
They also drag up the tried-and-tested, or in this case tried-and-failed, subject of ‘barrel bombs’ but now with a chemical twist. The Guardian says with certainty that ‘Syrian regime helicopters dropped barrel bombs filled with chlorine’, but then seemingly contradicts itself by saying that it only ‘prompted further claims that Damascus had continued to use banned chemicals’.
Should there not have been much more than a ‘claim’? How about an investigation? Or would that expose the truth that it is the terrorists who have been using chemical weapons?
What this report represents is an utter journalistic failure. It fails to question anything or offer alternative explanations for what it presents as evidence, a basic academic trait, and relies on dubious eyewitness claims that hold very little water at all.
In doing so, it advances a dangerous position that advocates an escalation of tensions with a very capable nuclear power and damages the reputation of the entire news outlet.
Follow me here: http://twitter.com/StuartJHooper
READ MORE ON THE SYRIAN CRISIS: 21st Century Wire Syria Files
21st Century Wire is an alternative news agency designed to enlighten, inform and educate readers about world events which are not always covered in the mainstream media.