When it comes to Syria, it seems that ms journalists can even manage a belief in the tooth fairy:
"Bana Alabed is a 7-year-old Syrian girl with outsized optimism and lustrous brown hair that tumbles past her waist. She enjoys reading about dinosaurs, practicing English with her mom, and playing with her two little brothers... She recently lost a tooth, but the tooth fairy never came, because she lives under siege in eastern Aleppo. 'The tooth fairy is afraid of the bombing here,' she said. 'It ran away to its hole. When the war finishes it will come.' Bana's thoughts are broadcast by her mother, Fatemah, on a Twitter account that she launched earlier this year. It has already amassed more than 200,000 followers. Many news organizations published stories on the earliest tweets and videos, and a Danish reporter brought up Bana's case during an in-person interview with Syria's President, Bashar al-Assad, who dismisses it as 'a game of propaganda'." (Bana Alabed, Twitters child witness to the battle for Aleppo, Ben Taub, The New Yorker, 6/12/16)
Whether the following bucket of cold water was enough to sober Taub up or not is anyone's guess:
Rania Khalek @RaniaKhalek Dec 7 @bentaub91 FYI there is no tooth fairy in our culture. This is a very strange line. The tooth fairy is a western thing.
Still, here's another just in case:
"Shame on this woman. Shame on this terrible mother of Bana in Syria. I don't know the circumstances but she should be ashamed to make a statement to the camera and to hold her little child as a prop. I don't know anything about this Fatima but I know that she is one lousy mother. I also notice that her English on Twitter is far better than her spoken English on camera. Notice how Bana seems to be prodded to speak? I can't believe that the insensitive Western reporters are in fact circulating such videos which are not only exploitative of a child but even endangering her by using her as a propaganda prop. But then again, this is by the NBC correspondent [Richard Engel] who still praises the Syrian rebels who kidnapped him and who produced a false spectacle about his release. Fatima can only be forgiven if some man or men behind the cameras are forcing her to engage in this terrible behaviour." (Don't blame Bana - a little child - blame her shameless & terrible mother who exploits her child for the cameras, The Angry Arab News Service, 18/12/16)
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Only slightly off topic, MERC. Over at MoA, b has a piece about the Deir Ezzor attack by "coalition" aircraft on the Syrian Army. Recall that the Australian Government claimed that it participated in this. Recall too that the Danish Government, also involved in the attack, pulled its aircraft out a few days later. According to b this attack was probably against the wishes of Obama. It resulted, intentionally by those ordering it, in the breakdown of trust by the Russians in the US government as a credible negotiating partner. In a sane world the general involved - Harrigian - would be court marshalled and his boss at the Pentagon, Carter, fired. But what about Australia's role in this apparently unsanctioned action? In the unlikely event that the sane world takes over, where will our government stand?
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