Blatant Corporate Media Propaganda Inciting Hatred of Syria to Justify InterventionEric Blair Take a look at this Huffington Post front page from today: Its difficult to even know where to begin breaking down the blatant propaganda tactics used here. Lets ignore the gory red paint splatters on the Syrian flag, as that one is pathetically obvious. To bring some immediate perspective to this headline, imagine if it read HORROR: NEW MASSACRE IN PAKISTAN selfnewss: American Drone Bombs Slaughter 78Women and Children Killed. But that headline would never happen because they (the State Department controlled AP and Reuters) would never allow those emotional trigger words to be used. Instead, militants were always killed with maybe a bit of collateral damage during U.S. drone mission. No one was ever slaughtered or massacred during drone missions . . . those words are only used to describe the enemys actions. Also notice the disclaimer words Reported and selfnewss, meaning it may not have happened but someone said it did so well call it a massacre. Now look at the actual title and the article which appears to be a joint effort by Reuters and the Huffington Post: Hama Massacre: Qubair, Syria, Site Of Fresh Violence, According To Unconfirmed Reports. The crux of the short article read: selfnewss said pro-government militia men and security forces killed at least 78 people, including children, in Syrias central province of Hama on Wednesday. Some of those killed in the village of Mazraat al-Qubair were stabbed to death, the activists said, and at least 12 bodies had been burned. The unconfirmed reports suggest that at least 40 victims were women and children. (emphasis added) Do these reports ever really get confirmed, or just repeated over and over? It doesnt really matter because the propaganda has served its shock value whether proven false later or not. And why use the words pro-government militia men and security forces? Why not call them the Syrian army or local police forces? So many layers of manipulation going on here. Read pro-government as the bad guys, militia men as terrorist thugs, and security forces as a sort-of private mercenary guard. The other line that struck me was, The anonymous activist said that militias loyal to the regime raided the village and began executing people using knives and AK-47s. How did this anonymous activist know this ragtag knife-wieldingmilitia was loyal to the regime? Did they announce it on their arrival? If so, that smells even worse like a false flag. Unfortunately no further details were given. But they were efficient enough to tie this story to the previous unconfirmed massacre by pro-government forces from last week to continue to display a pattern of abuse by Syria to justify Western intervention. Huffington Post is theepitome of the progressive hypocrisy in America; those who once vehemently opposed the Bush Doctrine of preemptive intervention and war to stop bad guys who never attacked or threatened to attack the U.S., but now support that policy with Obama in the White House. They cheered for the Libya intervention, saying it wouldnt take more than days when it turned out to take over six months to fully destroy that beautiful country who never harmed anyone outside of her borders. And now it appears as though theyre cheering for more intervention into Syria, who also never harmed anyone outside her borders, and the harm (massacre) happening inside the country is coming from unconfirmed reports from anonymous activists. Unconfirmed reports from anonymous sources shouldnt be enough meat for such a bloody headline.Loaded with emotional trigger words, this is how they sell hatred and preemptive war. In other words, its clear war propaganda. It matters not what is actually going on in Syria. Im sure bad things are happening on both sides of the conflict. But to see a breaking news item presented this way over and over, only to find flimsy reports, you have to wonder what the real truth is. Its not quite as bad as the BBC getting caught using images from Iraq while reporting on atrocities in Syria, but its still going above and beyond to shill for war. Its time for real antiwar progressives to look past the ketchup stains on the Syrian flag at their favorite news site and dig deeper into how they are being manipulated to give up their principles of peace before they justify even more bloodshed in the name of America. In other important news, CNN ran the Queens Diamond Jubilee(commercial free), complete with the commentator repeatedly saying and theres the queen, smiling and waving to her subjects. Reminds me of Bill Hicks American Gladiator bit Here, watch this America and shut up! Read more articles from Eric Blair HERE. 