Brief 7 - Exploiting a News Story

A recent object of media attention is the White Helmets organization in Syria. Officially known as the Syrian Civil Defense, they get the name White Helmets from, well their white helmets that they wear into combat. Their official stance is neutral in the ongoing conflict involving the Syrian government, ISIS, Syrian rebels, The United States, and Russia. However, they do receive funding from western countries. Specifically, the U.K. Foreign and Commonwealth office is one of their single biggest backers.

Now, there are controversies surrounding the organization. While many Anti-Assad publications support their efforts as unilaterally humanitarian, others are more critical of them.

While claiming to be neutral, the White Helmet's PR group publishes anti-Assad images such as this.

Never mind that violent regime change is what led to the creation of ISIS in the first place, these images clearly violate their stance that they "just want peace."




Among other accusations are that the White Helmets are directly linked to Al-Queda, and serve primarily as their medics on the battlefield. Others say they fake their rescues for propaganda purposes with actors.




"The true source and real purpose of the White Helmets were exposed almost two years ago by investigative journalists. Max Blumenthal has written a two-part detailed examination of the “shadowy PR firm” behind the White Helmets. And Jan Oberg has written an overview survey of the “pro” and “con” examinations in his work “Just How Gray are the White Helmets”."




Now if these accusations are true, then the group is certainly exploiting the news for their own political advantages. But we also have to consider the other hand. Are the accusations of the White Helmets exploitative propaganda in and of themselves? Snopes seems to think so.

"While the article accuses the White Helmets of having terrorist ties in the headline (“EXCLUSIVE: The REAL Syria Civil Defence Exposes Fake ‘White Helmets’ as Terrorist-Linked Imposters”), it does not provide any proof in the body of the story. It instead heavily implies that the White Helmets are terrorists because they operate in areas held by the opposition, and because unnamed crew members of what the article calls the “REAL Syria Civil Defense in Aleppo” told the reporter that was the case. The article also contains an interview with a man she identifies as Dr. Bassem Hayak, who claims civilians in east Aleppo have never heard of the White Helmets organization."

So let's consider if the claims are entirely untrue, and entirely propaganda efforts by the Syrian and Russian governments. If this is true, then we can still find exploitation in this story. Technically it would be the Syrian and Russian governments trying to twist every news story to make their cause seem just.

Now the real question we have to ask is, which side is telling the truth? And for that, I don't think there's an easy answer. There certainly is no definitive proof that the White Helmets are working with terrorists, but there is circumstantial evidence. They only operate in the areas that the rebels operate in, and are funded by the states that also fund the rebels. But we can't easily prove them guilty by association. Is there any hard evidence that Russia is only making these claims for propaganda purposes? Again, there isn't. But what is for sure is that both sides have motives to bend the truth, and both sides have something to gain from exploiting this news story. Honestly, no one who reads this will be living in Syria, and we have no idea as to the complete objective truth of the matter. So I feel the only real solution to the problem of exploitative news stories is to read both sides of the issue and keep in mind that everyone has something to exploit, and a stone to grind.