Don’t Believe Alseyassah

Search

Plain Talking

Why did a key witness in the Hariri trial call a Kuwaiti tabloid to tell us that he’s safe and sound?

I don’t mind tabloid newspapers, really. Rags build their credibility with time and people are free to choose the sensationalist outlet of their taste to fulfill their biases.

What really bothers me is how acceptable it has become for our mainstream media to rely on such discredited sources like Alseyassah to break sensitive and important stories, and the unquestioning cheerleading otherwise sensible people indulge in.

Take for example today’s Naharnet story about Mr. Zouheir Al Siddik, the “king witness” of the Hariri trial who disappeared into thin air in France. If you are such an important person and you had the opportunity to call any media outlet you wish to break the news that you’re safe and sound. Why would you settle for Alseyassa? Why not call Annahar? LBC? Aljazeera or Alarabiya?

Can’t find an answer? It’s simple. It’s because Alseyassah made the story up.

Even if we support March 14, it is our duty as discerning citizens not to take for granted all the news their media feeds us. We are not sheep, remember?

Do you like this post? Would you like to be always updated with new posts on this website? If so, please subscribe to this blog's RSS feed? (tell me more)

Share This Post:

Print it:

Email it:

-->

Discussion

No comments for “Don’t Believe Alseyassah”

Not necessarily;

Yes, they could have made up the fact that he called them. But they could also know more about this affair.

The fact is that, because of the delays and secrecy, the Hariri investigation is turning into more of a political tool than a legal proceeding.

Posted by Jeha | April 10, 2008, 4:01 pm
is AL-Mustaqbal a rag? most definitely, not just a yellow rag, but a very soiled, sloppy, bloody, stinky, disease-filled, stained rag.

Posted by Dibsi Koola | April 10, 2008, 9:58 pm
The moment you start discerning between various newspapers in the region, is the moment you have to make arbitrarily choices. Sure, Al-Seyassah is a rag, but would you therefore trust other newspapers more?

Nahar is, imho, quite respectable. Yet, as you wrote, they have no problem quoting from less respectable sources and pass it on as news. So where does that leave them?

Let’s face it, all newspapers in the region have their own agenda and should not be trusted at face value.

Luckily, that opens the door to a whole new line of articles to blog about whereby you can simply skip over the truthfulness of the content itself: why did newspaper X publish article Y at time T? :-)

Posted by Riemer Brouwer | April 11, 2008, 7:08 am

Post a comment

Hello, my name is Mustapha and I blog in The Beirut Spring about Lebanese society and politics. I started in February 2005 after the killing of P.M. Rafik Hariri.