There’s an old joke that’s been around as long as the interwebs, that the hot young thing on the other end of the chat line is really a bald, middle aged bloke living out some weird fantasy. Looks like it’s true.
A Girl Gay in Damascus gained a worldwide readership and was closely followed by news organisations.
But the true author has now come forward – Tom MacMaster, an American man studying in Scotland.
And they all got taken in – even when “Amina” was apparently captured by the Syrian security forces. Even news organisations – who, we are supposed to believe, check their facts before hitting the “send” button. No, they all fell for it.
MacMaster claims that no harm was done. Perhaps, perhaps not. Who knows how this will play out for people who are actually in Damascus and trying to reach the outside world.
Then in a post last Monday, an entry said to be written by Amina’s cousin was posted, saying she had been seized by armed men believed to be members of President Assad’s Baath party.
“We are hoping she is simply in jail and nothing worse has happened to her,” said the cousin, calling for help in finding out what had happened.
I’d say sending people off on a wild goose chase is harm even if no one was injured or killed as a consequence, it was certainly wasting their resources.
I can understand the activists being taken in. A good hoax can be believable and MacMaster had enough knowledge to pull off a convincing scenario. I wouldn’t expect them to check with embassies or dig deep to find someone who has actually spoken to or seen the person concerned – given that the blog was apparently being published under her own name. But you would have thought the news agencies would be a little more careful of their reputations, no?
MacMaster’s excuse for this?
The events [in the Middle East] are being shaped by the people living them on a daily basis. I have only tried to illuminate them for a western audience.
Yeah, right. I’ll believe you, thousands wouldn’t.
Give the MSM what they want and they will gobble it up, persecuted Syrian lesbians, hooray!
“Give the MSM what they want and they will gobble it up”.
Beat me too it.
The Middle East is full of squables of various sorts many of which are quite complex. This stuff is like totally boring to the media its western audience.
To create interest the media likes to personalise a conflict – by focussing on the plight of an individual the media is able to cover the squable without ever having to explain what the heck is going on. In this regard the media are suckers for a pretty young lady and when you add in the social media element editors couldn’t have believed their luck.