Syria
has long been a closed society; now it is black hole. But Stephen
Gowans does something in this article that I'd been expecting someone to
do before: he goes back and examines
what western reporters and agencies were saying shortly before and at
the time of the supposed mass uprisings in Syria in 2011. What he finds
from the contemporaneous record does not fit the picture presented by
the western media today.
Instead reports show small, not large revolts, and the bulk of the
rebels, then as now, drawn from salafist groups. The revolts are
presented as chiefly a battle between Assad's secular Arab nationalist
government and Islamist groups. The Islamists are reported to be
demanding not western-style democratic reforms, but the release of
prisoners and the ending of emergency regulations that would have
strengthened their cause against Assad. Reporters at the time describe
Assad as largely popular with most Syrians.
I have to say this
is how I remember the coverage of the time. I thought my memory had
played tricks on me. But Gowans' examination of the reporting from the
time suggests my memory is not the problem.
Whether you read
this long piece or not, I suggest scrolling through to the end for a
short conversation, presumably from around 1970, between an Australian
journalist and the Palestinian writer Ghassan Kanafani. The western
journalist's patronising sloganeering is beautifully punctured by
Kanafani in ways that resonate to this day.
