Funny how last Tuesday we even had precise numbers. 82 civilians, 58 men, 11 women and 13 children. Somebody was able to count them. Yet despite of how common smartphones are in Syria that somebody has not been able to snap a single photo of any of the bodies?

And let’s think a moment about the supposed massacre. So the Syrian army has been willing to evacuate thousands of Islamist rebels, including from notorious groups like Jabhat al-Nusra and Nour al-Din al-Zenki but is at the same time going around executing children??

You think then the BBC, Reuters, The Guardian, The Independent, to name a few, may have jumped the gun on that one? Would it have been more prudent to just not bother relaying such unconfirmed information, or else make it very clear it originates from sources who have an agenda and incentives of their own and are only allowed to operate under the supervision of al-Qaeda-type groups?

But here is the thing about new reporting. Western big media no longer reports what it knows, but what it fears,

Information is no longer checked against facts but against one’s preconceptions.

The Economist article on the alleged massacre of 82 provides a splendid case in point. Subtitled “The fate of up to 100,000 civilians is terrifyingly unclear“ it comes with this tidbit:

The failure of the world to act means that what happens next to the remaining population of east Aleppo, numbering anywhere between 50,000 and 100,000 people, could be atrocious. In recently captured neighbourhoods, pro-regime troops have begun to slaughter civilians inside their homes, according to reports received by the UN and sources inside the city.

In what it described as a “complete meltdown of humanity” inside Aleppo, the UN said reports suggested that at least 82 civilians, including 11 women and 13 children, have been murdered in recent days. Government forces have also detained hundreds of men, the UN said; others have been conscripted into the Syrian army.

Even though there has been no actual evidence of any massacres or executions whatsoever The Economist nonetheless insists the fate of 100,000 civilians is “terrifyingly unclear”and “could be atrocious”. After all how do we know that they aren’t all being murdered right now?

Since western media fears that Assad is a butcher the burden of proof obviously lies on him — even if he has to prove a negative.

The reporting we are seeing no longer involves journalists relaying information from the ground, but instead giving voice to their own fears, fantasies and dislikes.

The information of value of a report such as the one by The Economist is literally worthless, the only bit of information it conveys is that The Economist really, really dislikes Assad.

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The Western media were “in” on Washington’s intentions from the very beginning, and they enthusiastically joined the American propaganda campaign against Syria detonated by the Obama administration in 2011. Here’s one of the images that one of the  filthiest presstitutes, The Economist, ran then:

The above is clearly a staged propaganda photo concocted by Western disinformation experts, to start giving legitimacy to the idea of a strong opposition to Assad. Western media outlets naturally ate it up.

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APPENDIX
RT Exposes Fake News on Syria
by Stephen Lendman

Throughout years of US aggression on Syria, virtually all Western media reports were fabricated accounts about what’s ongoing – disgraceful fake news, hard truths suppressed. Reliable independent reports, along with excellent coverage from Press TV, other Iranian media, Sputnik News and RT represent a vital antidote to deplorable Western propaganda. On December 15, RT reported on how Bana al-Abed, aged 7, an Aleppo resident, became an inadvertent tool of Western fake news.

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She doesn’t speak English, is too young to understand what’s ongoing, and has no television or Internet access in war-torn eastern Aleppo. Yet a Twitter account was established in her name three months ago, RT reported – now with 300,000 followers (30-fold my own). Are tweets from her, what her mother is sending out, or by US-supported terrorists using them as fake news tools? Are videos showing her brief comments in English scripted propaganda – words she doesn’t understand? Of course!

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RT correspondent Murad Gazdiev asked why she and her mother “always (show up in eastern Aleppo’s) hottest spots…tweeting and posting videos, almost 24/7.” If something smells rotten, it usually is. Rana is reminiscent of last summer’s fake news Aleppo boy story. At the time, I said (i)n his photo gone viral, Omran Daqneesh look(ed) remarkably calm, more soot-covered than bloodied, not at all like someone traumatized in shock and pain – alone enough to raise suspicions.

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Indeed so. The fake news story was staged, an elaborate hoax, Rana used the same way – to arouse anti-Syria, anti-Russia sentiment, ignoring US responsibility for raping and destroying the country. A same day RT report discussed the George Soros supported, al-Nusra connected White Helmets. Calling themselves volunteer civil defense rescue workers conceals their real mission – supporting atrocities committed against Syrians, not aiding them. RT correspondent Lizzie Phelan is one of the few journalists in eastern Aleppo, accurately reporting under combat conditions for months. On December 13, she tweeted “first hours in weeks here in #Aleppo without the sound of shelling and gunfire.”

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The same day she tweeted “(w)hat a day talking 2 E Aleppo 2ppl about #White Helmets. Those nobel p prize nominees have atrocious reputation w those they’re ‘saving’ “ Residents she spoke to accused them of being “camera posers, thieves and raiders.” One man said they killed his daughter. They’re supporters of terrorism, not good will volunteers as claimed. Video footage displaying them is fake news, anti-Syria propaganda, concealing their true mission.

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They operate in al-Nusra controlled areas – photographed and videotaped together with these animals during beheadings and other atrocities. With Aleppo liberated, they’ll move elsewhere. Disgracefully nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize last summer gave a terrorist group a chance to be this year’s winner. Instead the award went to narco-state terrorist Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos – once again mocking the legitimacy of the dubious honor.