'Heroic' Syrian troops executed dozens of woman and infants

[TimothyC]

Then why did you quote it verbatum in threads about Syria?

Because the majority of the time that I look for confirmation I find it. If you would be so kind as to provide specific pointers to examples of him getting things wrong on Syria, I am more than willing to listen.

[Irbis]

Man, even if the government really didn't slaughter those innocents, nobody will believe them. Not that the suspicion isn't deserved, but it looks like this is going to turn into another Libya.

In case you haven't noticed, Libya and Syria started simmering st the same time, one difference being their dictator lost and was kicked from power, while the other keeps kicking the populace.

Alas, certain arrogant powers around the world have their sights set on regime change, so while they could help mediate the dispute, instead they fuel it.

Yesss, I'm pretty sure Libyans hate the regime change and would gladly trade their bickering about upcoming elections for Syrian bubbling civil war

Democracy might not be ideal solution for Middle East, but dictators just keep the lid on kettle with ethnic group conflicts and keeping them will lead to much worse explosion down the line. The only way to keep "known devil" in charge is to pretty much redraw whole map of the Middle East along ethnic division lines instead of colonial borders, or just accept that removing a few despots now will be most likely least painful solution.

[wautd]

If (when?) Assad keeps butchering civilians, won't that make Russia and China look really bad? Will it tank their reputation if they are seen as protecting an obviously evil and bloodthirsty regime?

Err.. I don't think they have much reputation to loose to start with. And especially Russia will choose weapon sales to Syria and the safety of their marine base over what little reputation they have left.

[mr friendly guy]

here is an interesting thing on the BBC article

BBC News uses 'Iraq photo to illustrate Syrian massacre'
The BBC is facing criticism after it accidentally used a picture taken in Iraq in 2003 to illustrate the senseless massacre of children in Syria.

y Hannah Furness10:39PM BST 27 May 2012
Photographer Marco di Lauro said he nearly “fell off his chair” when he saw the image being used, and said he was “astonished” at the failure of the corporation to check their sources.
The picture, which was actually taken on March 27, 2003, shows a young Iraqi child jumping over dozens of white body bags containing skeletons found in a desert south of Baghdad.
It was posted on the BBC news website today under the heading “Syria massacre in Houla condemned as outrage grows”.
The caption states the photograph was provided by an activist and cannot be independently verified, but says it is “believed to show the bodies of children in Houla awaiting burial”.

A BBC spokesman said the image has now been taken down.

Mr di Lauro, who works for Getty Images picture agency and has been published by newspapers across the US and Europe, said: “I went home at 3am and I opened the BBC page which had a front page story about what happened in Syria and I almost felt off from my chair.
“One of my pictures from Iraq was used by the BBC web site as a front page illustration claiming that those were the bodies of yesterday's massacre in Syria and that the picture was sent by an activist.
“Instead the picture was taken by me and it's on my web site, on the feature section regarding a story I did In Iraq during the war called Iraq, the aftermath of Saddam.
“What I am really astonished by is that a news organization like the BBC doesn't check the sources and it's willing to publish any picture sent it by anyone: activist, citizen journalist or whatever. That's all.
He added he was less concerned about an apology or the use of image without consent, adding: “What is amazing it's that a news organization has a picture proving a massacre that happened yesterday in Syria and instead it's a picture that was taken in 2003 of a totally different massacre.
“Someone is using someone else's picture for propaganda on purpose.”

A spokesman for the BBC said: “We were aware of this image being widely circulated on the internet in the early hours of this morning following the most recent atrocities in Syria.
“We used it with a clear disclaimer saying it could not be independently verified.
“Efforts were made overnight to track down the original source of the image and when it was established the picture was inaccurate we removed it immediately.”

The telegraph article shows a picture from BBC uploaded on 27 may. The article in this OP is dated 29 May, but both are talking about the Houla massacre. So BBC admits to using the wrong image. Going on, one wonders how easy it is to back track the image.

http://tumblr.thefjp.org/post/239259346 ... wrong-year

from the Future Journalism Project

FJP Pro Tip: a reverse image search could have flagged this photo in seconds. Where to do it? We use Google Image Search (instead of typing a search term in the text box select the camera icon which allows you to either enter the URL of an image or upload one) and Tineye (the process is the same).

Now I have no idea if this is true, however since I am not a journalist I am not expected to have the skill of chasing a photograph. However I would expect journalists to follow the source so to speak.

RT is having a field day with the BBC's stuff up

Now firstly, I am not saying Syria's government are good guys by any stretch of the imagination, nor denying a massacre didn't happen (waiting for more evidence). However when you blatantly use a WRONG photograph and think that you can cover yourself by saying, well.... it might be the wrong one, we can't verify it, especially when the photograph is blatantly going to assign outrage against one side, that is just fucking lazy. That is just the most charitable interpretation. I trust people can work out what the most uncharitable interpretation is.

So BBC's reputation takes another hit. I must say I used to think very highly of the Beeb, but recent stuff ups seem to have hurt their reputation. Maybe they should stick to trying to make Doctor Who good again (sarcasm).

[Aaron MkII]

Well there's the fact that most of us are burned out from Afghanistan and don't have spare men to go around. We're also cautious of stumbling into another clusterfuck.

Besides the West isn't and shouldn't be world cop.