Getting away with nonsense
April 10, 2007
SANA has a rather strange “quote” which I’d like to share with you, quoting it verbatim: “British Magazine of "The ECONOMIST" said that Syria, by cleverness and patience of President Bashar al-Assad overcame circumstances and pressures put on her.” For once, I’m not going to comment on syntax or grammar (I give up) given that the content is actually interesting in itself. Now call me finicky, but I had already read the piece in the actual Economist to which SANA “writers” refer, and which they only discovered on Monday (somebody better tell them that it actually comes out on Fridays), titled “Has he got away with it?”
In fact, I have this week’s issue next to me on the desk, and I can assure you that the closest - and this is really stretching it – part of the article one could consider as their “source” is the following sentence: “He owes his new lease on political life to the incompetence or fatigue of his enemies, to clever diplomatic footwork and to lucky circumstances.” Not quite the same, is it? Talk about paraphrasing.
Someone at the Ministry of “Information” should do something about this; it may seem like peanuts when looking at the big picture, but media is such a vital element of politics these days. Syria gets enough flak as it is for real events and real statements: is it really necessary to go to these extremes about something anyone can check? Honestly, Syrian officials who allow this to happen deserve the ridicule they receive, but Syrian people inevitably get dumped with the lot and it's getting tiring.
I can’t remember if I mentioned it in this blog, but I once literally asked the previous Minister of Information, Mehdi Dakhlallah, to shut down the online English section of SANA until they got their act together. He told me he couldn’t fire a single person, and that there was really nothing he could do about it. (He also told me not to read Israeli papers, and I really should write more about that meeting we had! Or have I already?) I wonder if Muhsin Bilal has the same power, or lack thereof; if so, what’s the point of the ministry anyway? Circulating miscellaneous statements about visiting dignitaries (I'll eventually get to Pelosi's visit, because there are actually a couple of interesting things about it) is not much of a remit, and misquoting respected publications is just so absurd. So, Mr. Minister, what are you going to do about it?
