Guest post by DaveM
One of the side effects of intensively learning Arabic by long term exposure to Arabic satellite TV– especially channels such as Al Manar, Al Aqsa, Al Jadeed, Syria TV, Yemen TV, Al Jazeera, etc.– is that after a few years you become desensitised to what’s being broadcast.
When you start watching these channels and reach a stage where you can comprehend their output it can be quite disorientating. For example when you first hear crazy paranoid conspiracy theories from a guest speaker on an evening news bulletin. Or the phrase the “so called Holocaust,” the “alleged Temple,” the tunnels underneath the Al Aqsa Mosque designed to make it collapse, the Judaization of Jerusalem, the Masonic-Zionist-Imperialist plots, etc.
It’s initially shocking but after half a decade of hearing this stuff it fades into the background. It’s no less unpleasant, but you get used to it because you don’t have much of a choice. A bit like sciatica, really.
But every so often when watching TV something comes along which stops you dead in your tracks and makes you go WTF!? And you’re not quite sure if you’re actually seeing and hearing what you think you’re seeing and hearing, or you’ve had some sort of nervous breakdown.
If you can see the Addounia logo in the top left hand corner of the screen then you can relax as I can guarantee you that it’s the former and you have absolutely nothing to worry about.
And just when I thought they couldn’t raise the bar of batshit crazy any higher, they did.
“If the matter was limited three or four related TV channels then it would be pretty straight forward, and it would be easy to follow what’s being broadcast about Syria in order to analyse and refute it.
“However it’s become clear that there is a unanimity to distort it and conceal detailed parts of the truth. However we’ve gotten used to that.
“After Al Arabiya’s fabrication of the weather forecast and turning it into codes and symbols it was the turn of Al Jazeera Sport, for it was nothing other than a map [showing the route of] weapons smugglers arriving from outside the country.
“And here we see the first stage of transporting the weapons from Lebanon then crossing Homs and then being handed to another terrorist from the Abu Kamal region. After that he heads a long distance towards the north.
“And here we see how they are warning them that they’ll face some obstacles and difficulties in reaching Der Ez Zor in order to send the weapons via bus to the final area located at Al Mayadin to supply the terrorists in those areas with the weapons.”
Their editorial team are wasted doing Syrian news, they should be in some Hollywood studio working with David Lynch on the sequel to “Twin Peaks.”
The story’s now been picked up on the Internet and has already been featured by Ynet and The Guardian’s football site The Fiver, which wrote:
If you thought Andy Townsend’s tactics truck was a nadir, try this: a state-owned Syrian TV channel has alleged that Barcelona assist in – and you’ll like this – the smuggling of weapons to rebels. A detailed video was used to show that Barcelona’s formation and pattern of play were specifically designed to demonstrate possible arms-smuggling routes.
France Football’s English correspondent Phillipe Auclaire couldn’t believe it either and tweeted:
The Barcelona/arms smuggling video – of course we know this is utter bullshit. Just asking: was this really broadcast by Syrian TV?
Yes it was. Welcome to my world.
Update: It appears to be a hoax. More details to come.
DaveM adds: It looks like it’s a hoax. And I’ve been had.
I saw what I thought was a Syrian opposition activist tweet that they were watching a news report about Barcelona FC providing weapons smuggling routes, and by the time I switched on the satellite box to watch Addounia I thought I had missed the report.
I thought nothing more of it until I saw a clip of it circulating on YouTube. As Addounia has previously made bizarre claims, such as the cardboard replicas of Homs and pretend protests being filmed in Doha, this clip fitted in with their warped worldview, so I assumed it to be genuine. And it had been picked up by various media outlets which indicated that the clip was genuine.
In my rush to translate the clip and get it posted I didn’t think to verify it, merely assuming it was another of Addounia’s whacko stories.
I was wrong. I was taken in by a hoax and failed to do some basic checking. Sorry.
Addounia was quick to draw attention to this clip which has been viewed over half a million times.
“This is a report published by the Emirates newspaper Al Bayan, dated 16th March 2012. The story is about Addounia and specifically media deception. We will read out part of the report word for word as it’s written even with its linguistic errors.
” ‘The channel’s (Addounia) report was focusing on media deception where it accused the two channels Al Arabiya and Al Jazeera of weaving a conspiracy to overthrow the regime of Bashar Al Assad in Syria. The clip is funny since it shows footage of one of Barcelona FC’s attacks as if it’s the plan which Al Jazeera’s broadcasting to inform the terrorists of it. And just before the pass to Lionel Messi, the Barca player, from three of the mid-fielders, the report represents Messi as one of the terrorists who is endeavouring to smuggle weapons. And the three other players in front of Messi were depicted as indicating the obstacles facing the weapons smugglers (smuggling weapons) into Syria.’ ”
“Firstly we repeat that we are not responsible for the linguistic errors. Secondly we will show you the report which the Emirates newspaper Al Bayan published on its website as if it were from the series of reports on media deception by Addounia and as if the voice were that of the preparer and presenter of the report.
” ‘It was the turn of Al Jazeera Sport, for it was nothing other than a map [showing the route of] weapons smugglers arriving from outside the country. And here we see the first stage of transporting the weapons from Lebanon then crossing Homs and then being handed to another terrorist from the Abu Kamal region. After that he heads a long distance towards the north. And here we see how they are warning them that they’ll face some obstacles and difficulties in reaching Der Ez Zor in order to send the weapons via bus to the final area located at Al Mayadin to supply the terrorists in those areas with the weapons.’ ”
……..
“The Addonuia logo is in the corner of the screen. And there’s the voice of a presenter reading the report. There’s editing, a beginning and caption screens which are the same ones as used in this report.“We don’t know the intention of the maker of this material on the tongue of Addounia. However the newspaper Al Bayan directly attributed it to Addounia, [and that’s] not open to interpretation.
“And we read out the report in full and literally so there wouldn’t be any confusion that we had distorted the content of the report.”
I’ve just been taught an important and valuable lesson by Addounia on the importance of checking and verifying sources. Addounia! It gets no lower than that.
