“This sincere young journalist is having a real Mr. Smith Goes to Washington experience in #Douma,” tweeted journalist Caitlin Johnstone, referring to Pearson Sharp (One America News Network) whose on-the-ground reporting from Syria flies in the face of official mainstream reports out of Syria. Realizing that everything we’ve been told about Syria is false, Sharp — like Mr. Smith in Washington — goes about exposing the lies. While legacy media rants on about a horrifying attack, reports out of Douma suggest it didn’t happen. Sharp found no witnesses nor evidence. Nor did journalists, Robert Fisk (UK The Independent) and Uli Gack (German ZDF).

The world’s eyes are on Syria like never before. Concerns about potential full-scale military confrontation with Russia have caused people to re-examine the Syria situation, sending into overdrive the establishment’s megaphone, a.k.a. the mainstream media (“MSM” hereafter). The war machine relies on public support, so intelligence agencies have perfected the craft of psychological operations — psy-ops — to mind control us into supporting wars that benefit war profiteers and hurt everyone else. The cost has been more than a half million dead in Syria, 2.4 million in Iraq, and trillions in tax dollars. In the US, propaganda was legalized and Pentagon — yes, Pentagon — funds were earmarked for psy-op campaigns geared to cripple dissent and manufacture consent for wars.

In this article, we examine nine war psy-op tactics used by MSM in Syria. By comparing MSM Syria reports to what real journalism looks like — featuring Pearson Sharp — we get a crystal clear picture of how MSM goes about deceiving and manipulating us. The more expert we become at collectively decoding and exposing their tricks — and sharing these tools of discernment with friends — the sooner establishment narratives will crumble. Following is an investigation into just how they operate.

First we consider Sharp who’s a role model in how the Fourth Estate is supposed to function. In self-filmed videos, he randomly approaches and interviews locals and hospital personnel in Douma with the assistance of an interpreter. To prove he isn’t speaking to government plants, he randomly approaches people in the streets with film rolling. His interviewing style is thorough, covering all bases, never leading the speaker to a desired answer, and eliciting their assessment and conclusions. Of the five journalists reviewed herein, Sharp is the only one with full interviews, which creates transparency.

Ground zero interviews in Douma

At ground zero, we learn people laughed when they first heard about the alleged attack on TV. They think it’s a “show”. “The West keeps playing this game. This is not the first time,” they concur. “This is how the West plays its game to find an excuse to attack Syria or bomb Syria.” In the hospital, staff report there were typical cases of smoke and dust inhalation that day, but no deaths nor gas victims — fewer patients than usual. In a gas attack, they explain, hundreds of victims would be admitted. They say the video of children being sprayed with water and inhalers was staged by intruders yelling “chemical attack!”

1. Halt the Investigation & Make the Rest Up (Starring Robert Fisk, The Independent)

These hospital testimonies and Sharp’s inability to find a single witness of a real gas attack corroborate the findings of award-winning Middle East correspondent Robert Fisk in this article (and short audio), who interviewed “more than 20 people” in Douma. Fisk has more journalistic latitude than his MSM counterparts discussed below, but he doesn’t go far enough. “How could it be that Douma refugees who had reached camps in Turkey were already describing a gas attack which no one in Douma today seemed to recall?” he wonders. Oops! He means Idlib, the terrorist refuge. What a glaring omission — more on that below. Without further investigation, he draws his conclusion that news didn’t spread due to people living in tunnels “so isolated from each other for so long” during the siege. That doesn’t square. Military reports stated that the terrorists packed civilians in close quarters, yet he leaves it at that, not daring— or too polite — to call out MSM reports from up north the way Sharp does, such as in this tweet:

Just watched a Sky News report about Douma — reporter COMPLETELY LIES about what she saw. I didn’t meet ONE PERSON who saw the attack, but she makes it sound like an atrocity… These reporters act like they care about the Syrian people, but their lies are costing lives. (Emphasis mine)

2. Confuse the Reader Without Outright Lying (Fisk)

The horrors jihadists inflict upon civilians have been documented every time a town is liberated, including Douma. Fisk’s article touches on this matter, sprinkling seedlings of truth. He alludes to the miles of “wretched prisoner-groined tunnels” (i.e. civilian slaves), a Jaish al-Islam execution, and “jihadis . . . living in other’s people’s homes” (i.e. forcing civilians to be homeless), yet he avoids explaining that there are no moderate rebels. Sharp, on the other hand, explains it in black and white on Facebook (boldface mine):

What I can’t figure out is why journalists report about Syria the way they do — — it’s a stunningly beautiful country, with some of the kindest, warmest people I’ve ever met. The Syria they talk about in the news, and the Syria I’m visiting now are not the same place AT ALL. The people here are THRILLED the government has recaptured areas from the rebels: under rebel control, they had no jobs, no food, no power or water or medicine. They feared for their lives every day. EVERY person I’ve talked to (this is not an exaggeration, I have yet to meet someone who disagrees) says they are so relieved to be living under Assad, and that life is finally going back to normal now that he is in charge. I simply don’t understand why other journalists would say differently. I have talked to Syrians from all over the country, not just one place, and they unanimously hated the rebels, and love President Assad. And these aren’t people who are fearful of speaking against the president, you can see it in their eyes, hear it in their voice. They laugh when I tell them Western media says they hate Assad, and love the rebels. They ask me, “then why would we live here? We are free to do what we want, why wouldn’t we just go live in rebel held areas if we like them so much?” It’s a great question. I don’t have all the answers, and I’m genuinely baffled at the VAST difference between the Syria on TV, and the Syria I’m seeing with my own eyes.

For seven years “they unanimously hated the terrorists” and “feared for their lives every day.” Fisk, however, keeps this pivotal detail cryptic, writing,

The story of Douma is . . . not just a story of gas — or no gas, as the case may be. It’s about thousands of people who did not opt for evacuation from Douma on buses that left last week, alongside the gunmen with whom they had to live like troglodytes for months in order to survive.

For readers unfamiliar with the word troglodyte, that sentence means nothing. Again, Fisk talks over our heads.

Recent civilian testimonies expose barbaric terrorist war crimes in Ghouta. People are eager to tell their story, and one of Sharp’s hospital interviewees goes off-topic to say the terrorists starved his family for seven years. Surely Fisk was told these horrors, but he plays it safe, stressing there are two stories in war. His assignment is simply to investigate a gas attack, not expose war propaganda. Notwithstanding, the outcome of his ambiguity is a confused reader — not an informed one. In juxtaposition to this, we see Sharp blowing the lid off the entire war psy-op.



When Fisk visited the abandoned offices of the White Helmets — whose tweets alerted the world of the event — he found a gas mask and dirty military camouflage uniforms. He thought:

Planted, I asked myself? I doubt it. . . . Of course we must hear their side of the story, but it will not happen here . . . [because] every member of the White Helmets in Douma . . abandoned their main headquarters and chose to take the . . . government-organised and Russian-protected buses to the rebel province of Idlib with the armed groups when the final truce was agreed.

This point will fly past readers only familiar with White Helmets’ Hollywood image. A terrorist mecca, Idlib’s no ordinary travel destination. The US-funded White Helmets are a propaganda construct who rescue only terrorists, participate in beheadings, stage fake rescues, and are allied with Al-Nusra Front. The reason Fisk doubts that the gas mask and military apparel were planted is surely because he‘s aware of their terrorist activities. But once again, he doesn’t spell that out.

3. Make Sweeping Unsubstantiated Claims (Fisk)

Even if he really does believe Assad runs a “ruthless dictatorship”, Fisk does not source this sweeping claim. (He cannot.) Nor does he justify his condescending attitude towards the “boring general” and military police— as if there were no concern about rogue operatives. Moreover, he neglects to mention that the Syrian cops in Douma are recently reconciled terrorist militants (at 97:30)— those who chose amnesty rather than board green buses to Idlib. Russians supervise them as a condition of the truce, to thwart potential violence. What dictator allows terrorists to reintegrate as police? Of course, these missing inconvenient truths do not fit Fisk’s brutal “regime” meme. But because he writes in an authoritative tone (see #8 below), we’re supposed to trust this party line. Nevertheless, regardless of the deficits, kudos for his report on the gas attack matter (mostly ignored by MSM) and his masterful free-flowing prose that brings the streets of Douma to life for the reader.

4. Lie Brazenly Straight to the Camera (Starring Louise Callaghan, Sky News)

Next is a report from Idlib. Vanessa Beeley’s insights into MSM tactics there are noteworthy (at 96:25):

Family members of the terrorists who have left Douma on the buses that evacuated terrorist groups and their families and went to Idlib are, in my opinion, far more likely to be coerced into giving the evidence they’ve given to the MSM that was there waiting for them when they arrived, than Syrian civilians who are now able to live in peace, able to restore and rebuild their lives. . . . 63,000 . . . have now returned to eastern Ghouta to their homes.

Indeed, in this Sky News segment, Louise Callaghan reports on her visit to northern Syria refugee camps — without presenting interview footage, and neglecting to mention these are the people who rode buses to Idlib governorate, where surrendered terrorists and their families relocate, many of whom are foreign mercenaries. To get a feel for Idlib, here is a video filmed undercover there at great peril. Terrorists are documented liars and have a vendetta against Assad, yet Callaghan describes them as ordinary civilians. This discredits her report right off the bat. MSM pretends all Syrians hate Assad, but according to Beeley, at least 85% of Syrians favor him, and their voices “have been completely ignored for the last eight years by western media.”

In the report, Callaghan claims that “individually corroborating” testimonies of Douma “survivors” all witnessed the gas attack, experienced symptoms, and said the missile attack was “good” but wouldn’t deter Assad. She claims that she met a girl from the hospital video, that the White Helmets help people all over Syria and are not Al-Qaeda, and that Assad used gas many times.

Given MSM’s long history of lying us into war, when they stay perfectly on a war agenda script like this, you can be sure they’re lying. Because she broadcasts from Mosul, one cannot be sure she even went to Syria. It’s really unlikely everyone interviewed said the exact same thing. Without video proof, we should assume she made it up, not only because it contradicts video testimonies in Douma, but because these are “rebel” factions with an ulterior agenda. Plus she says provable lies about the White Helmets and Assad, so she has zero credibility.

There’s no evidence Assad gassed his people. Ever. She doesn’t discuss Assad’s popularity nor the US-supplied terrorists’ penchant for gassing people. In fact, here’s a compilation of reports refuting hers, suggesting it was a false flag staged by her pals, the White Helmets. “This isn’t just bad journalism, it should be criminal,” Sharp tweeted. “I wish she had to live with the people she was lying about.”

One final clue that she’s lying is her body language: the rolling of eyes, blinking, smug grin and deadpan gaze hint of a trained liar. Those contrast with Sharp’s sincere expressions and steadfast eyes.

5. Act Like an Expert While Forecasting a Long War. Be Sure to Make it Sound Complicated. (Starring Callaghan)

Pushing the war psy-op envelope, twenty-something Callaghan acts like a seasoned foreign policy expert, declaring “The war’s far from over” because of the complicated web of warring factions — as if only experts could figure it out. This plants the idea of never-ending war in the public’s consciousness — just what the war profiteers ordered. In truth, the situation is not so complicated. Here’s how simple it is: It’s not an organic civil war. Assad, Russia, and the Syrian Arab Army are the good guys with mass popular support. There are various “rebel” factions, but no moderate rebels. Indeed, testimonies of terrorist atrocities in Ghouta debunk MSM. As my friend John McCarthy points out, “War would stop immediately if outside forces stopped supplying the “rebels, most of whom are not even from Syria.”

6. Insinuate That Everything Fits Your Narrative (Starring Arwa Damon, CNN)

In the next video, testimonies appear to be manipulated. CNN correspondent Arwa Damon reports from a refugee camp in northern Syria — also in Idlib. Once again, it is disingenuous to pretend they’re ordinary civilians. This video got a lot of laughs because she debunks herself by sniffing and touching objects allegedly contaminated with chemical weapons — without donning gloves or mask. Her highly edited video features clips of interviews with her voice-over translation muting most of the original dialog.

Damon reports that they all witnessed the gas attack, and some were poisoned. Really? A bedridden woman, she translates, was leaving the hospital when the sick arrived — a “horrific” scene! Woah, that doesn’t jibe with Sharp’s and Fisk’s hospital testimonials. Damon implies — without saying it outright — that the husband died in the alleged gas attack — a perfect example of how to insinuate that everything fits official narratives. Damon doesn’t say the smelly items were contaminated in the attack, but she implies it by reacting to a sniff test — “definitely . . . stings,” she says. With the camera close up on a smiling child, she states:

This new camp is inhabited with those who survived the siege of Douma. Its relentless months-long bombing that drove families underground so that something as simple as feeling the sun on their skin was a luxury.

Her scolding tone is code for blaming Assad and his Army. Damon summarizes in the same chiding tone:

The limited US-French-UK strikes may have sent a message to the Syrian regime about chemical weapons, but not the rest of its arsenal. For those who have endured the unimaginable, it’s little more than a move on a gruesome chessboard.

This insinuates that Assad and the Arab Army are responsible for the “unimaginable” and it implies that most Syrians share this viewpoint — which is not supported at all by Sharp’s news coverage (nor other independent journalists, for that matter).

One-man act

7. Edit Craftily & Dub Over the Arabic (Damon)

Damon’s big budget film crew production honestly cannot compete with Sharp’s one-man act. His interviews are not highly edited nor dubbed like hers — nothing is hidden. His third-party interpreter translates in real time on camera. No one should ever, ever trust CNN dubbed translations because CNN was literally caught reading scripts on air in the Bana Alabed Syria psy-op. An elderly woman in this video hardly utters a word on camera, but quite oddly, Damon translates an entire paragraph, saying “her country has caused her too much pain.” Hmm . . . did the woman really say “HER country”? That’s a pro-rebel attitude, but opposite of what ordinary civilians say.

Of four adults Damon interviews, we don’t see the faces of two. Why did the man in this picture refuse to be identified? There can be a reasonable explanation — or he’s a terrorist — but it seems there was a dearth of willing participants in this large camp. Could it be because few conformed to her agenda? Sharp’s videos, in contrast, feature many people unabashed to speak on camera. With tape rolling, he randomly approaches and interacts with many people — not the case on CNN where the settings and props (doll, clothes in wash basin, face mask, pot on boy’s head, infant on hospital bed) look pre-planned. With all the theatrics, one wonders if the twin girls’ Disney shirts and sparkly sunglasses might be CNN gifts aimed to sway testimony. Furthermore, Damon’s interviews are cut, so we don’t know if she asked leading questions. Compared to Sharp’s impromptu videos, hers look rehearsed — props and all. Truth does not need editing nor staging.

Did CNN provide the face mask as a prop? Were the T-shirts or sunglasses a gift to butter up the witnesses?

8. Speak in an Authoritative Tone In Lieu of Providing Proof (Co-starring Callaghan & Damon)

Caitlin Johnstone points out that “Saying something [repeatedly] in an authoritative tone [is] now [treated as] the same thing as providing proof.” These Sky News and CNN segments lack video proof. Yet because they speak in authoritative tones, viewers are meant to believe that none of the refugees condemned the “rebels” or western allied governments like the majority of Syrians do — and even some terrorists denounce them as well — and that they all witnessed the gas attack. Johnstone recommends, “Never, ever, ever let them push the burden of proof upon you” (at 18:00). As chance would have it, Sharp provided video proof that refutes these MSM claims.

9. Lie by Omission (Starring Frederik Pleitgen, CNN)

CNN senior international correspondent Fredeik Pleitgen reported from Damascus April 7, providing the first details of the attack for which Assad was accused (link is here). The week prior, Pleitgen had visited eastern Ghouta with a group including Vanessa Beeley, who tweeted:

Why no mention of #EasternGhouta terrorist chemical weapons lab u visited wth me on 6th March? Why no mention of 3,500* plus civilian prisoners of Jaish Al Islam held in “repentance” prisons? Who gains fm this alleged CW use?

Pleitgen lies by omitting these critical parts of the puzzle — which would turn the narrative completely on its head because Jaish al Islam had the motive, means, and proximity to captives. On the other hand, Sharp leaves no gaps in his reporting. The way to know they’re lying by omission is to follow credible media sources. Here’s a list of independent Syria experts to follow (plus Tim Anderson). (*Note: Jaish al-Islam lied about the hostage count. Only 200 survived, with thousands dead or sold to Idlib.)

Hold MSM Accountable & Spread the Word

This is not normal. It is not healthy for well-educated journalists to warmonger for a paycheck and fame. To recap, here’s a list of nine psy-op ploys used to manufacture consent for war.

MSM has literally turned into a Hollywood production, and puts on this charade because they can get away with it. We need to call them out, hold their feet to the fire, and show our friends how to spot these psy-ops. Quite demonstrably, Sharp models what real journalism looks like, in graphic relief to MSM. This drastic dichotomy proves how fake MSM is and how dumb they think we are. As John McCarthy points out, “. . . honestly and humanly, [Sharp] is giving a voice to the People of Syria.” Sharp has arrived back in the USA and is posting more “Mr. Smith Goes to Syria” footage from his journey. In an interview, Sharp offers strong advice as follows:

Don’t trust the media. There is so much that goes on that you don’t see reported. I work in the media. I was at Douma. I saw what I saw, and then I saw what the other news outlets reported, and it wasn’t at all the same thing. . . . Traveling around Syria, there’s so much to that country that people don’t see in the media. The people there are friendly and outgoing, and all they want is to live a normal life. They are trying so hard . . . to just have a normal life. . . . In spite of everything, Syrians love America.

The good news is that — gas, or no gas — this chapter has helped blow the cover off MSM’s wiles. That’s why MSM is doing damage control with a giant smear campaign targeting their indie media competition. We need to push back, hold them accountable, and expose their tricks. People’s lives depend on it. Maybe even our own. Johnstone offers many more tips on how to spot psy-ops and fight back. Let’s follow, support, and promote her and these independent Syria-expert journalists and get the word out about Syria. Peace.

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