The media moulds our thinking and frames stories the way it wants. It tells us to believe and accept certain formulas, while asking us to disapprove and disregard others. At the same time, the Western media in particular is the mirror image of how Western governments and their allies see matters or how they want them to be seen.

Almost 14 years ago during the Tahrir Square protests in Egypt in 2011, if you watched the CNN, BBC, or Aljazeera TV networks you would have witnessed not only thousands of Egyptian protestors standing their ground and calling for change but also a media agenda that was intent on exploiting them and directing their course.

During the protests, CNN and Aljazeera stirred up the protestors and egged them on. Very early on, as though then President Hosni Mubarak’s ousting had been settled in advance, it spoke to the opposition, including possible would-be leaders such as Mohamed Al-Baradei or Amr Moussa, and with the protestors in Tahrir Square.

It spoke of president Mubarak’s ills and defined a future course without him. It focused on shortages of bread, petrol, and, of all things, cigarettes — a peculiar shortage that was not evident to many. It was adamant about not showing ordinary Egyptians on screen, those who were worried about where the mayhem would lead and who were fed up with the chaos and wanted to return to normality.

There is an Egyptian saying that goes “John Doe wants a funeral where he can scream and vent.” I heard this many times from Egyptian people when they were describing Aljazeera, CNN, and other channels in 2011. The meaning of the saying is obvious: the media outlets focus on the negative to ignite anger, and they look for trouble only to enhance it — in other words normality does not sell or bring in viewers. It doesn’t have a return. If this is the norm for the media, in 2011 it was particularly vividly expressed.  

Did the media manipulate the protestors? Was the media fanning a revolt and aiming to take fundamental decisions that could indeed make or break a country? Did the Egyptians at that time take the premeditated Western media expectations as a given or with a grain of salt? Did some channels, Aljazeera and CNN for instance, have hidden agendas?

We were then, as we are now, at the mercy of the media. We are retold events in various ways, and, depending on what we watch, read, or listen to, the core of the events changes.

The same twisting of events exists today. Syria, for example, has been caught up in an upheaval, but how the Western media portrayed the fall of Damascus was mindboggling.

Syria is now presented as though it is on the verge of complete reform and rehabilitation, an image promoted by the Western media. CNN, almost as though it was betting on Hayat Tahrir Al-Sham (HTC) leader Mohamed Al-Golani to win the conflict, interviewed him even before he could claim victory. The Western media never questioned his intentions but took it upon itself to rebrand him.

From the very first day, before he was even given a chance to prove himself, he was considered a “rebel” by the Western media, not a terrorist, Jihadist, or extremist. Al-Golani’s nom de guerre then vanished, and he started to be called by his real name. A BBC headline read, “Syria not a threat to world, rebel leader Ahmed Al-Sharaa tells BBC.”

Al-Golani was alleged to have changed. He was presented with a trimmed beard and wearing regular European-style attire. “A person in their twenties will have a different personality than someone in their thirties or forties and certainly someone in their fifties. This is human nature,” he said. He played up an image of moderation and inclusivity as he sought to reassure the world.

Yet, Al-Golani is the same person who in 2014 told the Americans and Europeans that “your leaders will not pay the price for the war alone; you will pay the higher price” and that Al-Qaeda “will transfer the battle to your very homes.” How can we forgive and forget if we don’t know how many people he killed as an Al-Qaeda commander and the acts for which he was never charged?  

The West is content with the change occurring in Syria, and its media is effectively developing it. The Western media presents it confidently and continues to elevate al-Golani. The image that the Western media is trying to present of Al-Golani is unrealistic, for his acceptance was pre-meditated and deliberate, and it also came about much too fast. However, Al-Golani and the West see eye to eye.

In Egypt, scepticism and doubt prevail as far as the future of Syria is concerned. During the downfall of Syria, falling into the hands of Israel, Turkey, and Hayat Tahrir Al-Sham, Egypt adopted a wait-and-see approach, and no official visits have taken place. President Abdel-Fattah Al-Sisi has warned that “their mission in Syria is complete… They have already destroyed Syria.”

The Egyptian media, realising the truth of the situation, has explicitly explained the dangers, those that the Western media has ignored. A case in point is the statement made by Egyptian journalist Ibrahim Eissa, who described the situation by saying that “promoting the Syrian armed factions as moderate is a crime against Syria.”

 “Anyone who bets on Ahmed Al-Sharaa, aka al-Golani, will lose his bet. History is a witness.”

Expressing his astonishment at the presentation of the Syrian crisis in the Western media, Amr Adeeb, an Egyptian media personality, said that “I burst out laughing when I heard the American statement that they weren’t aware of the uprising in Syria ahead of time.” Had US, French, or British satellites not seen Hayat Tahrir Al-Sham forces gathering before the attacks?

A photograph of Al-Golani with Mahmoud Fathy has sparked fury in the Egyptian media. Fathy, an Egyptian, has been convicted for terrorist activities in Egypt and sentenced to death in the case of the murder of Egyptian Attorney-General Hisham Barakat. Al-Golani’s decision to meet and be photographed with Fathy shows his allegiance to terrorist factions.  

The Western media is governed and misled by the Western Governments and their allies. This is nothing new, but we, even if helpless marionettes, must heed their tactics. Not everything we read is logical. Not everything we see is the truth.

The writer is a former professor of communication who is based in Vancouver, Canada.

* A version of this article appears in print in the 9 January, 2025 edition of Al-Ahram Weekly