Syria: The Propaganda Blitz -video

More than a decade after the war in Iraq, have global media outlets learnt to look beyond the spin?

As the crisis in Syria deepens, the diplomatic battle outside the country – being fought out in the global media – intensifies. Newscasts have chronicled the summit meetings, various bilateral talks, the photo-ops that precede the gatherings behind closed doors – while waiting for a vote on a UN resolution that would mandate the Assad government to hand over all of its chemical weapons. Both sides in this geopolitical tug of war have reached deep into their media arsenals, as politicians and their proxies have pushed their particular agendas. Presidents Obama, Putin, and Assad have all - in their own ways - blitzed the cameras. More than a decade after the ‘sales job’ that was the run-up to the war in Iraq, the question is whether media outlets have learnt to look beyond the spin and see the story in Syria for what it really is – a country at war with itself, with more than 100,000 dead, millions displaced and millions more in peril.