The press coverage of the Syrian conflict reminds me of the Communist regime, when the press was forced to write whatever the Party decided. Unfortunately, I am not referring to a Communist mass-media institution, but to what it used to be the “free press” of the “civilized countries”, of the “most democratic countries”.
The propaganda set in motion by the US and UK governments is hideous. The current target is the wife of the Syrian president, Asma al-Assad, but the photos of their three children are being shown disregarding the basic rule of child protection.
Here is what the low-quality British newspaper “Daily Mail” has to say:
She was once described as ‘a rose in the desert’, a long-limbed, London beauty who used her elegance and Western style to mask the increasing brutality of her husband’s murderous regime.
But as Asma Assad shelters in a bomb-proof bunker to avoid the horrors erupting within Syria – and to escape the US missiles expected soon to rain down on the country – she has become more of a Marie Antoinette figure, shopping for extravagant designer goods, food and health products online as the country collapses around her.
While more than 100,000 men, women and children have been killed and nearly two million Syrians have fled the country since March 2011, Asma, 38, recently splashed out on some Bohemian crystal chandeliers from Prague.
She also regularly orders Western food in bulk for her three children as she doesn’t want them to eat only Syrian food, according to an insider.
And in photographs posted on her Instagram account only last week, she is shown wearing a new blue £80 Jawbone UP on her right wrist – a device designed to help wearers keep track of how many steps they take and calories they burn.
This portrait is similar to the portraits written by the Romanian Communist journalists of the ’50s and ’60s to former political representatives. Soon after the publication, the press subjects would have become victims of a very aggressive regime.
Let’s see what “The Telegraph” has to say:
It’s Asma al-Assad’s Marie Antoinette moment. As world leaders tussle over how to respond to her husband’s alleged chemical massacre, the first lady of Syria posts cheery pictures of herself on Instagram serving food to refugees.
If this was an attempt to show her caring, sharing, mother of the people side, it’s badly backfired, with one user commenting that she made Marie Antoinette look like an angel.
