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Has the establishment media lost their touch when it comes to theatrical propaganda, or is the public becoming more savvy?  CNN’s reputation for accuracy has been extensively damaged over the past several years; their vitriol over Donald Trump and their defense of fraudulent pandemic narratives are often cited as likely contributors to their embarrassing audience losses.  It has gotten to the point where people don’t trust anything the outlet does anymore.

A recent broadcast by CNN’s chief international correspondent, Clarissa Ward, has come under fire this week from skeptics who claim the outlet “staged” a dramatic encounter with a lone Assad prisoner trapped in a gulag in Damascus who was allegedly kept in a dark cell for years and did not realize the regime had fallen.

The prisoner, who is found laying under a blanket but looking well dressed, well fed and well groomed, thanks the reporter profusely for saving him, then proceeds to walk outside into the bright daylight without any need to adjust his eyes after his long imprisonment in darkness.

This is so fake haha

To be expected from CNN

pic.twitter.com/UqeMeQoT8q

— Drew Hernandez (@DrewHLive) December 14, 2024

“In nearly twenty years as a journalist, this was one of the most extraordinary moments I have witnessed,” Ward wrote on her X page

It is fair to say that the interaction comes off as scripted.  If so, this does not necessarily mean that CNN or Clarissa Ward was aware of the strange nature of the prisoner or his story.  They may very well have believed that the man was a real prisoner trapped in a cell without windows and tortured until Assad was deposed.          

In a June 2021 interview with CBS News, Clarissa Ward, openly expressed her fascination with the Syrian “revolution” and her admiration for anti-government “rebels.”  “Yeah, I mean, you know, I will cop to the fact that I think I crossed the line in Syria. I became so emotionally involved, and I was crushed by the US response and the US policy,” she admitted to host Michael Morell, advocating for more aggressive “regime change” measures beyond the imposition of crippling sanctions.

CNN was the first Western media to interview Mohammed Al-Jolani, the leader of Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), a militant group backed by the US and Israel.  The Biden Administration is currently discussing the possibility of removing Sham’s terrorist designation.  The US media has invested a considerable amount of positive spin for the Syrian insurgents, and videos like CNN’s report from the prison in Damascus are likely to become commonplace over the next few months. 

Image management was one of the biggest failures of western intelligence agencies after their initial support for rebel groups in Syria, with many of the same fighters ultimately forming the ISIS terror network and engaging in genocidal activities.  Media reports painted the insurgents as pure patriots ready to die for freedom, until videos began to surface of their horrific actions against minority groups including Syrian Christians.  The question is, why is the establishment so desperate for the public to have a positive opinion of these rebels?