Surviving Capitalism (Not) : The media are misleading the public on Syria

We’ve lived so long under the spell of hierarchy—from god-kings to feudal lords to party bosses—that only recently have we awakened to see not only that “regular” citizens have the capacity for self-governance, but that without their engagement our huge global crises cannot be addressed. The changes needed for human society simply to survive, let alone thrive, are so profound that the only way we will move toward them is if we ourselves, regular citizens, feel meaningful ownership of solutions through direct engagement. Our problems are too big, interrelated, and pervasive to yield to directives from on high.
—Frances Moore Lappé, excerpt from Time for Progressives to Grow Up

Friday, February 19, 2016

The media are misleading the public on Syria

Click here to access article by Stephen Kinzer from the Boston Globe.

Americans are being told that the virtuous course in Syria is to fight the Assad regime and its Russian and Iranian partners. We are supposed to hope that a righteous coalition of Americans, Turks, Saudis, Kurds, and the “moderate opposition” will win.

This is convoluted nonsense, but Americans cannot be blamed for believing it. We have almost no real information about the combatants, their goals, or their tactics. Much blame for this lies with our media.

I was rather shocked to read this report and numerous articles and about the books written by this author and journalist which present a very critical view of ~~our~~ US foreign policies. Yet he has been employed by the NY Times and his articles have been published in several liberal publications like the Guardian and the New York Review of Books, and featured in addition in lessor known left-liberal websites like Guernica and Democracy Now!. I really don't know enough about him and his writings to comment on the significance of this. Note, however, this is carried in the "Opinion" section of the Boston Globe.