It is laudable whenever a prominent liberal media site offers accurate information to counter the lies of mainstream news reporting. Marsden recognizes the Guardian piece by Charlie Skelton as such an example. Exposés such as Skelton's rarely make it through the filters of editorial rooms of major media; but, occasionally they do. It's interesting to note that a major editor of The Guardian followed this piece the next day with a denunciation.
It is this that accounts for the scathing denunciation of Skelton in the next day’s edition of the Guardian by diplomatic editor Julian Borger
“US manipulation of news from Syria is a red herring,” the headline declares, “The big picture is clear.”
Accusing Skelton of “innuendo,” a heavy use of quotation marks to denote skepticism, “banal prose” and other literary crimes, Borger defends the various intelligence assets identified by Skelton as “people who have devoted a substantial share of their working life studying Syrian society and politics.”