Friday, December 09, 2016

Wow. New York Times now raises questions about the authenticity of the 7-year old girl who tweets from Aleppo

I am surprised because the supporters of Syrian rebels on social media basically said--repeatedly--that any one who raises doubts about the authenticity of the account is a propagandist for the Syrian regime.  But the best part of the story is what those staffer of Save the Children and UNICEF said about the matter: Sonia Khush and Juliette Touma basically said that it does not matter if the account are true or not as long as the propaganda purpose is being achieved.   "“Whether it’s Bana, or Alan Kurdi, or Omran Daqneesh, they bring attention to an issue in a way that helps people visualize a little more clearly the situation of children,” said Sonia Khush, the Syria director of Save the Children. “In the case of this girl, I don’t know whether it’s true or fake in this age of social media,” she said. “But her living as a child in Aleppo is consistent with what we hear. The fear, the sounds of different airplanes and drones. They’re terrified and have trouble sleeping at night.” Juliette S. Touma, a Unicef spokeswoman for the Middle East and North Africa, acknowledged that there was, in Bana’s case, “no way to verify where the tweets are coming from, or whether they’re coming from the girl or somewhere else.” At the same time, Ms. Touma said, “there is something symbolic about the tweets that are coming out from Bana, or that account, in the sense that it highlights the story of children who are caught up in the crossfire — it’s not just one girl, it’s many boys and girls.”"