Western media was involved in an intense disinformation campaign against Syria, Assad and his army from 2011-2020 in particular. As the war subsided, so did Western voices on the subject as they realized their defeat. However, the intense media disinformation blitz cannot be forgiven and cannot be forgotten.
So called journalists such as Michael Weiss, Charles Lister, Martin Chulov and Hassan Hassan were prominent in the western propaganda mill against Syria during the height of the conflict. They made outlandish claims and outright fabrications to sway public opinion into the favor of Western interests. It was effective in influencing the Western public, but it could ultimately not change things on the ground in Syria.
Michael Weiss is one of the most distasteful liars in Western media circles. His arrogance and unlikability are immediately apparent when he speaks. Weiss has made ridiculous claims that ISIS and the Syrian army were allies and the the Russian air force never struck ISIS. This was his main focus. The irony is, he knew very well that this was not the case.
Weiss had acknowledged the cooperation of the "moderate" Free Syrian Army with ISIS in 2013 in tweets that he has since apparently deleted. In 2013, ISIS did not yet have the negative connotation associated with it. In 2013, it was just another Syrian rebel group. That all changed in 2014 when ISIS took over large swaths of Iraq. At this point, the Western narrative changed. ISIS and the FSA were never allies, in fact, the Syrian army were their allies.
Lister also parroted this narrative. Much like Weiss, he had acknowledged the cooperation of the FSA with ISIS in 2013. He spoke on it quite extensively in fact. In 2014 he forgot he ever had such an opinion. Both Weiss and Lister backed the narrative that the Russian air force never struck ISIS, but only the Syrian "moderate" rebels. This was obviously false to anyone who kept up with the conflict. ISIS's Amaq news agency frequently published photographs of Russian aircraft striking their positions, particularly from late 2015 to 2017.
Even more ridiculous was the claim by Weiss, Lister and Hassan that the Syrian air force was not involved in striking ISIS. Amaq news and Syria's media agencies frequently posted photographs and videos of ISIS being targeted.
Martin Chulov was caught in a lie by the author in one of his stories in The Guardian. Chulov made the claim that a Hezbollah commander gave a speech in the town of al-Ais in September of 2016. There was a problem. Al-Ais had been under rebel control for a few months by that time. It was obvious to the author that no speech had ever taken place. The purpose of Chulov's article was to foment sectarian tensions and paint the Syrian government in a negative, sectarian light.
In one tweet, Weiss stated that ISIS was to the East of Aleppo, and the rebels to the West. He claimed that the Syrian army was attacking the West only. This is ridiculous and he knew it. The battle to break the siege of Kweres air base had occurred months earlier in a major defeat for ISIS at the hands of the Syrian army. In the months that followed Weiss's tweet, ISIS would be entirely pushed out of Aleppo province and into Raqqa province by the Syrian army's Tiger Forces.
These men are not journalists, but intelligence agency assets hired to spread false information to sway public opinion. It is so cartoonishly Orwellian it almost can't be believed. Only a few Westerners know enough about the Syrian conflict to call these liars on their false claims. To think this disinformation campaign only happened with the Syrian war is foolish. Every war the West backs is based on lies and intentional disinformation. Read the paper and watch the news with a heavy grain of salt.
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