Is the Media’s Reporting on Syria Based in Reality?

The conflict in Syria raged on this week as the death toll climbed beyond 100,000. The Associated Press reported that on Tuesday Syrian troops dropped more than 60 mortar shells over four hours on a suburb of Damascus, killing 11 people, including women and children.
But is that really what happened?
Patrick Cockburn, Middle East correspondent for The Independent,   just returned from Syria where he witnessed firsthand the discrepancies between what was happening on the ground and what was being reported by the foreign media. As a result, he views media reports on the country with a skeptical eye.
Cockburn, a veteran foreign correspondent, says he can’t think of any other war or crisis he has covered in which propagandistic, biased or second-hand sources have been so readily accepted as fact.
He argues that the one-sided reporting by the foreign media is ruling out serious negotiations and influencing long-term plans.
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