When Questions Lead to Conflict
Does it lend to the credibility of a news organization if their representatives shy away from answering valid questions?
Shouldn't a journalist's main motivation be to report the truth, regardless of what it looks like?
Should we be suspicious of a news source who spends much of it's time and energy attacking others?
On March 21st this post from Sibel presented itself on my twitter feed:
Followed by the body of a tweet from whom Sibel said was Eva Bartlett, but the origin of the tweet was not included:
That tweet, read on it's own, sets a certain tone and provides a bit of insight into the author. But it's just an example of how context and situational awareness can change the meaning behind what we say. The tweet was a bit shocking. It's not common, possibly unheard of, to see something like that coming from Ms. Bartlett, so I asked a question:
Sibel, though she continued to defend that the source was Eva Bartlett, refused to provide proof. She ended up blocking me before I could capture her responses 😒 but here is the remainder of our exchange that led to said blockage (blocking people who question her seems to be a fairly common practice. See below)
Evidently Ms. Bartlett was paying attention to my exchange with Ms. Edmonds and decided to contact me privately on twitter to explain that, yes, the post was from her, but she provided the context that was curiously missing from Edmonds' public tweet:
This isn't the only rubble that's been tossed Eva's way from Sibel Edmonds and others from Newsbud
This business of journalism can become quite dirty when 'agendas', rather than 'spreading truth' becomes a motivation.
The behavior of the Newsbud organization suggests that it is just as focused on attempting to discredit other journalists as it is on what's happening in Syria.
While citizens are suffering, children are dying, families are being torn from their homes, buildings are crumbling, people are living in hellish circumstances, Newsbud and Sibel Edmonds seem to be more interested in engaging in a smear campaign against two independent journalists than they do in reporting the truth.
Is it time for unity in truth, yet?
With their combined efforts, Eva Bartlett, Vanessa Beeley and organizations like Newsbud could promote true change for Syria and the people there, but these smear campaigns are diverting precious attention from an urgent situation.
When truth is overshadowed by agenda promotion and personal attacks, we all suffer.
I learned, from her decision to block me for asking valid questions (which is all I did) that Sibel Edmonds isn't purely interested in sharing truth, she's also interested in stifling others from finding it...and I'm not alone:
It also appears as though I'm not alone in my support for Ms. Bartlett
https://twitter.com/MacIntyreCheryl/status/978005987109064704
https://twitter.com/youngskwi/status/978052203360419840
A twitter search for Eva, Vanessa, or Newsbud will prove useful in reflecting how we are experiencing, in real time, information wars on a very large scale. It's difficult to discern who is being authentic and who is a tool for someone with an agenda, but answering the three questions at the beginning of this post may be a step in the direction to finding authenticity in our news.
My introduction to Ms. Bartlett:
For more on Eva Bartlett: https://ingaza.wordpress.com/about-me/
https://ingaza.wordpress.com/syria/syria-my-published-articles-from-and-on-syria-2014-2017/
https://ingaza.wordpress.com/2016/08/11/updates-from-on-the-ground-in-syria-june-to-august-11/
I'd also urge you to read this response: https://ingaza.wordpress.com/2018/01/20/a-personal-reply-to-the-fact-challenged-smears-of-terrorist-whitewashing-channel-4-snopes-and-la-presse/
Vanessa Beeley: https://twitter.com/VanessaBeeley
🤗
This is a great article. Thanks for posting. I agree with your analysis, but I would like to say I personally know that many of the commentators partnered with Newsbud were/are doing some great work. For example, Peter Lee, Filip Kovacevic, Pye Ian. I know from personal experience that these three are talented, intelligent, honest, and very professional in their behavior. I don't know their opinions on this current smear campaign, but I want to make sure that all people currently or formerly associated with Newsbud do not get lumped into the same category as the people involved in this smear campaign. (full disclosure: I worked at Newsbud for about 5 months).
Good point. I haven't let it sway me, and hope that it didn't come across as a sweeping dismissal, or condemnation of the entire Newsbud organization.
The article did not come across as a sweeping dismissal, definitely fair. I just wanted to add my comment to give additional clarification for anyone reading on this topic.
Hey Jeff, wondered where you went. Missed your tech reporting. I haven't been a paid NB subscriber for a bit, but must admit this has surprised me. Am hoping it's just a bad stress reaction on SE's part.
I didn't know anything about this, informing myself right now thanks to you 👍. It looks like they are basing their smear campaign solely on one statement (and who would not be angry?) made in a private message. The short video Newsbud has posted about Vanessa Beeley is done quite shoddily, reminds me of Infowars PJW videos...not to be taken seriously. Being blocked by a 'news outlet' tells more about them. Something's fi🐬y, that's for sure.
Thank you for the input, yours is always a gift. 🤗
Excellent insight and so important to share. Thank you!
Thank you, Katie. Always nice to hear from you. 🤗
It really is a shame to see how petty and childish Sibel has become. I was blocked on twitter by her when I pointed out the fact that her attacks on Beeley and Bartlet were uncalled for, even though I agreed with her that some of the organisations they write for are not as independent and alternative as they would have you believe.
I lost a lot of interest in Newsbud after they put their content behind a paywall, but I still payed attention to some of their journalists. I'm particularly happy that @kurtnimmo set up an account on steemit, I only wish he had more of a following as he does some good work.
Excellent article. I find this situation to be completely unacceptable since Sibel is the head of Newsbud. To attempt to undermine the effective reporting of these women and the true situation in Syria is just horrific. Which she is still doing by the way as of 41 minutes ago:
My understanding after looking into the issue a bit, sadly enough, at least according to:
Extremely disappointing to say the least.
@cannolishoni Thirty minutes into this new Corbett video and so far, it is as expected, looking terrible for Sibel. What a waste. It is just inconceivable that Sibel would think that she could get away with this. I have to wonder if someone has gotten to her, or if as one commenter said, it's kind of like she's on drugs or something. Really liked Sibel in the past and she and Corbett have appeared together on programs that I've seen. Unless he pulls something out of his hat later in the video, it seems that Sibel has essentially ruined NewsBud in my estimation. Should she somehow be vindicated, I'll come back here and update this as is necessary. Have to wait for my wife to finish watching the video, but wanted to update the information here asap.
edit: Well I finished the video. Not only does it not get better, it actually only keeps getting worse.
It does seem a bit overboard, right? Almost as if someone hacked her account or something. Corbett did a great job, loved this take on the situation...sucks he left twitter, though. I'd have to be dragged kicking and screaming from the blue bird 😃
Exactly, but her video and NewsBud team backup rules out the Twitter account hacking hope. It's like she was whole-body-and-mind hacked or drugged. Anything less than that and She and NewsBud are done I think. I don't think you can recover from that without some crazy unexpected explanation and apology. Never seen anything quite like it. Flaming self destruction. I am way, way, behind the times and just finally got hooked up and going in Twitter. It's pretty fun I must admit. We just finished watching Ricky Gervais' Netflix comedy special Humanity, so I follow him among my truth type crew. He's always spotting funny stuff and retweeting it.
Disclaimer: I am just a bot trying to be helpful.
I saw this guy as Sibel's sole supporter more than once when I was researching on Twitter.
This is one of the best articles I've read on Steemit so far. Shows what the average person is up against when just trying to obtain factual information about what is going on in the world. You are a great writer and researcher, Shoni! Keep up the amazing work :)
OMG...thank you so much! I was just surprised at the reaction I got from her...to be blocked for asking questions, it was such an 'in your face' realization of what is feeding our media. Makes me ill.
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STOPGreat article Shoni 🙂 interesting to see these infight's.. you are absolute correct.. journalism should be about the truth.. not pushing a certain agenda.
Disclaimer: I am just a bot trying to be helpful.
Highly rEsteemed!