The ‘White Helmets’ Controversy | Global Research - Centre for Research on Globalization
The saturation of propaganda from massive investments by Western
interests in NGOs like the “White Helmets” has skewed the public’s
understanding of foreign crises, such as Iraq in 2003 and Syria today,
writes Rick Sterling.
Across the mainstream Western media, the “White Helmets” are hailed
as heroic first responders rescuing injured civilians in
rebel-controlled parts of Syria. The U.K. Guardian and The Independent
urged the Nobel Committee to award this year’s Nobel Peace Prize to the
“White Helmets.” As it turned out, they didn’t get that one, but they
did receive the prestigious 2016 “Right Livelihood Award.”
On the U.S. side of the Atlantic, the “White Helmets” are treated
with similar uncritical acclaim. They were the subject of the Oct. 17
TIME magazine cover story. Netflix has released a special “documentary” movie
about them. New York Times columnist Nicholas Kristof has gushed over
them for years, helping the group’s one-sided depiction of events inside
Syria shape the pro-rebel narrative that is pretty much all the
American and European publics hear about Syria.
