NEAR-TOTAL WESTERN NEWS BLACKOUT ON SYRIAN WAR

Vince Dhimos answered a question on Quora. Post-publication comments by Vince.
 
Don't we associate massive manipulation of news reporting with totalitarian regimes?

There is a near-total Western news blackout on the military actions in Syria, which is evidenced by this Quora question, and which enabled Trump to claim months ago, for example, that he had completely eliminated the terrorists in Syria. It would be interesting to know how many Westerners are wondering how they can trust any Western journalist when all leave such enormous gaps in the reporting on what is possibly the most important conflict in modern history. I say that because the Syrian war marks a turning point at which the US unwillingly – largely through its own abysmal incompetence – relinquishes leadership in the Middle East to Russia.
 
https://www.quora.com/Why-do-we-never-hear-about-what-is-happening-in-Syria-It-used-to-be-in-the-news-daily-now-rarely-Is-Al-Assad-still-around/answer/Vince-Dhimos
 
QUESTION: Why do we never hear about what is happening in Syria? It used to be in the news daily, now rarely. Is Al-Assad still around?
 
Vince Dhimos, Editor-in-Chief at New Silk Strategies (2016-present)
 
Answered 11h ago
 
There is plenty of news daily about Syria, but we are told not to read it. It almost all comes from the Middle East and we are told that Middle Easterners are all Muslims so they would of course not tell the truth (like the US never lies to us). The Western US-aligned nations know that if Westerners knew the truth, they would realize that the US and its allies, especially Israel and Saudi, are involved in shady things in the Middle East. (I posted on this at Quora: https://www.quora.com/Which-of-t...). You would learn that the UN had condemned the Saudi slaughter of Yemenis because of their religion. You would wonder how the US, with its First Amendment that mandates religious neutrality, could support Sunni Wahhabist Saudi, which wages war strictly based on religion, wantonly killing Shiites throughout the Middle East. You’d wonder why Israel is slaughtering Palestinians just for holding protests, and you’d wonder why the US gives both the Saudis and Israel a pass for doing things no other country would be able to do with impunity. But you don’t know why because you read Western sanitized “news" and many Americans think they're getting "balanced" news because they read both leftwing censored news and rightwing censored news, although the problem is that both right and left in America are rabidly pro-war -- which is why Tulsi Gabbard can get no traction in her campaign.
 
You’d wonder why Russia, Syria and Iran keep having to fight terrorists even after Trump said he had had them all killed, all by himself.
 
I have to wonder how many people reading this don’t even know that Russia, Iran and Turkey had regular conferences in Astana for years to discuss strategies in the fight against terror, or that there was a de-confliction zone in the province of Idlib but that Turkey and the terrorist organizations were cheating and keeping heavy armoured vehicles and weapons there against the rules.
 
I could be wrong but I suspect that very few reading this knew that Russia had its own reconciliation centre in Syria to reconcile the rebels with the Syrian government so that things could get back to normal. If people knew this, it would would make them wonder why the US had never thought of doing something this reasonable and sensible instead of pretending that the Syrian government never existed or that Assad is poison when in fact he held the country together through 8 years of war and appears to be emerging victorious. This is the biggest embarrassment of all to the Western warlords.
 
So the media pretend nothing is happening in the Middle East that is worth reporting.
 
So what can you do to make up for the deliberate lack of reporting on things that interest you about the Middle East, a place where much of your tax money goes in the interest of “fighting terror”?
 
Here are some of the only sites that will give you the information you need:
 
SANA: https://www.sana.sy/en/
 
Al Masdar: AMN - Al-Masdar News | المصدر نيوز
 
Middle East Eye: Middle East Eye: News, Opinion, and Analysis
 
Asia Times: Asia Times | Covering geo-political news and current affairs across Asia
 
(The latest issue tells us that Trump’s ceasefire was violated in the first 2 hr. You may not find this in Western media)
 
Southfront: https://southfront.org/ (almost daily Syrian war news. It’s not always well edited because the eye witnesses who bring this news are not journos and do not speak English as their mother tongue and they’re not Ivy League grads, but they can convey the news to you because they experienced it or learned it from sources on the ground, and it is news you can’t get elsewhere. Please support them)
 
The Saker: The Vineyard of the Saker
 
Then of course, there is Sputnik and RT, which are being sanctioned, and attempts are being made to ban them in Europe. If you were to read alternate sources like those listed above you would know that a Bulgarian journalist had done her own personal investigation and discovered that the CIA had been secretly sending arms to terrorists in Syria.
 
That story is here:
 
Journalist Interrogated, Fired For Story Linking CIA And Syria Weapons Flights
 
Zero Hedge is also a brave site that dares to report forbidden news of this kind. In view of what the West has done to Julian Assange it is a miracle that any news site dares to present the other side. Of course, there are also slipshod alternate news sites that just sort of wing it, but the ones listed here are trustworthy.
 
And, yes, Assad is still there.