How to Read Corporate News - A Practical Example
Step 1: Interpreting
A massacre has claimed the lives of dozens of civilians in the central Syrian city of
Homs, the Syrian government and opposition activists said Monday.
Super important, very, very well selected words and order. This is the crux of the whole piece. Key phrases in order: massacre, claimed, lives, civilians, Syrian government, opposition activists.
Sets the tone for what I'm supposed to remember reading the piece, and it doesn't really matter what the story actually says. As long as the rest of it keeps the spin going it will serve its intended purpose.
Each side blamed the other for the latest episode of carnage from the beleaguered town.
Probably means nato intelligence did it. If the assad regime did it they wouldn't readily confirm and publicize it and if nato did it they certainly would blame assad for their crimes. And there's also that little fact that nato is publicly trying to overthrow assad at the moment.
Opposition advocates said security services killed as many as 53 people, all but six of them women and children.
Security forces.. is that a misleading name for the Syrian Army? In any case last time I checked the assad government wasn't too well known for randomly killing women and children. And the nato backed death squads run by belhadj definitely do kill women and children.
Dissident groups said most of the dead were from the Homs neighborhood of Karm al-Zeitoun,
Oh ok your source is the dissident groups. As in nato intelligence and the nato backed death squads who have been sniping people randomly from the rooftops in homs for like six months.
a frequent site of clashes between security forces and armed rebels seeking to overthrow the government of President Bashar Assad.
Right. Armed rebels firing US and Isaeli weapons trying to create carnage for you press whores to spin.
The official Syrian Arab News Agency in turn reported that “terrorist armed groups” in Homs had kidnapped and killed “scores of civilians,” mutilated their bodies and filmed them in a bid to circulate the images worldwide and discredit the government.
yeah that sounds about right. so basically you're starting this story with your nato death squad sources reporting whatever darth vader wants to go out on the wires, then you drop this nugget that the official statement of the very government that nato is actively trying to overthrow is that they are being framed by terrorists. And I'm guessing you won't mention this again.
And what you didn't report is that the syrian press has repeatedly said they are 'foreign terrorists', not just terrorists. Nevermind that though, small detail.
Gruesome images purporting to show the victims lying in a blood-drenched room were published on the Internet and aired on Syrian state television. Syrian TV also aired video of apparent execution victims lying face-down on the rubble-strewn streets of Homs, all with their hands tied behind their backs.
Now why would state television televise their own killings all over the place if they were the ones running around blasting their own people? hmm.
Opposition activists have alleged that government troops and paramilitary units have regularly committed revenge killings in Homs, a center of the rebellion against Assad.
Revenge.. against nato backed death squads running around randomly sniping people? I think that would be called 'doing their job'.
The government has blamed “terrorists” for killings in Homs and elsewhere in Syria during the almost year-long rebellion, which has left at least 7,500 dead, according to the United Nations.
OK that's the second time you've put terrorists in quotes. And from what I know of you press whores that's probably a senior editor, not the journalist, and it's generally a signal that you're lying to me, usually a lie of omission. And in this case I'm thinking the correct phrase would be 'cia sponsored terrorists'.
The official news agency quoted several Homs residents identifying the latest dead as persons who had been kidnapped, in one case more than three months ago. Syrian television aired what it presented as interviews with Homs residents complaining that “armed groups” had terrorized their neighborhoods for months before being driven out by Syrian security forces.
Well you did indeed bring it up again. So basically what you're saying is that the people who actually live in Homs and have experienced all this first hand are telling you exactly what I was thinking above. But don't listen to them. They only live there. Listen to nato intelligence. They know best.
Both sides in the conflict have been kidnapping civilians, often holding victims hostage to exchange them for prisoners held by opposing forces, human rights groups say.
Well if that's true then it's no good on either side. But at least if assad's nabbing people it's because he's trying to get rid of nato terrorists, not just ransom people for money or drugs like the death squads.
oh and who are these human rights groups? maybe you'll tell me. i doubt it though.
Word Monday of the latest massacre comes a day after a special peace envoy, former United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan, left Damascus without securing a cease-fire or entry for humanitarian aid. Annan nonetheless said he was “optimistic” some progress had been made in a bid to end the violence.
Kofi Annan should be contemplating the rest of his shortass life in a cell in Nuremberg. Fuck Kofi Annan.
U.N. Security Council members were scheduled to meet Monday in New York to discuss the Arab revolts of the past year, with a likely focus on Syria.
U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton and Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov were expected to be at the U.N. session. Russia and China last month vetoed a U.S.-backed Security Council resolution that called on Assad to relinquish power. Russia is backing a new peace initiative that rules out foreign intervention in Syria and does not require that Assad cede power.
And now that Putin's back they'll likely succeed.
Step 2: Regurgitating
Nato backed death squads are killing people in Homs, and this article pretty much admits that minus the nato/westen intelligence bit. But it leads with scary language and doesn't come right out and say what it's really saying, so 90+% of people including the unfortunate OP read it and think that the Syrian government is running around mindlessly slaughtering its own people. This is great, because it will help the war effort and drum up support for further destabilization and soft war until the big bang pops off.
And most likely nato's losing their grip on the syria destabilization and they may be having a hard time keeping their terrorism up if they're writing pieces like this and pumping them all over the wires. Which may mean they'll try a different approach soon, like a false flag event or propaganda from a different angle. And they might be rushed on this now that Putin's back and the friends of syria conference was a flop.
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