Stuff is always alert to its important role of herding the New Zealand public along the road of the latest war narrative. In a glaring example of media bias and blatant propaganda, Stuff dutifully puts the necessary spin on the latest events in Syria.
It’s hard to keep track of the atrocities and misery in Syria, but over this past weekend there was a particularly heart-wrenching and cynical terrorist attack. Several buses, which were to take refugees to safety from besieged government held towns, were bombed. In an especially nasty twist, it seems children were lured into the danger area by the attackers with enticements of chips to eat. Click here for coverage of the immediate gruesome aftermath which also shows that it was the Islamist extremist ‘rebels’ who committed this atrocity (discretion advised). Naturally, that doesn’t fit the narrative which Stuff is trying to promote. The agenda is ‘Assad has to go’ at the expense of all other considerations. Showing that the rebels were in fact blood-thirsty Jihadis prepared to commit unspeakable atrocities wouldn’t fit. That left them with a dilemma. The bus attack was such a major event, covered by various media ‘round the world it would be difficult to ignore it and retain any sense of credibility. So, what to do? The answer? Sanitise the coverage of the bus attack relative to the gas attack narrative, don’t give it too much oxygen and wait for it become just another ‘brick in the swimming pool’ story whilst continuing to tut and mutter about regime gas attacks at every opportunity.
I wouldn’t expect Stuff to show the level of horror we saw in the link above, but have a look at their coverage of the bus bombing. Notice anything? That’s right, not a single victim is shown in the video. Just a walk through of the damaged buses after the body clear up has occurred. Compare that to their coverage, less than two weeks ago, of the gas attack. Several victims shown in this video, including children.
If Stuff has a policy of sparing its sensitive readership the worst aspects of war stories, why show pictures and video of children after the gas attack?