What is in the possession of the media outlets opposing Hezbollah, internally and externally, is incalculable, but it lacks media professionalism.

Yehya Dbouk

 

What is in the possession of the media outlets opposing Hezbollah, internally and externally, is incalculable, but it lacks media professionalism. Reporting news “as they are”, or the media psychological warfare, or the policy of causing psychological damage or blabbering in the ranks of the party, its allies, and its supporters, all those fell and are falling on daily bases. All what happened and is still happening indicates that those are not qualified for this profession. 

A few days ago, the Syrian militants’ media broadcast a part of a video over the internet, and it was circulated in no time in anti-Hezbollah media inside and outside Lebanon. The video shows an explosion of a building in Syria, it was said to be in Sayyeda Zainab region in Damascus Countryside, while stressing that it is “the most important building for Hezbollah, and the rallying point of its elements, killing dozens and wounding hundreds.”

It is true that Hezbollah elements in Syria and in Sayyeda Zainab region particularly learned about the explosion and their killing through media, but the news about the explosion occupied the headlines in no time, and was the topic of discussion and analysis on “prominent”  Arab media channels: What is its significance? What is its value and effect on the battle? How will Hezbollah treat the families of the casualties as their corpses arrive to Lebanon?

The news about the explosion was also circulated around international media, until it reached two days ago Israel. It was the first news in its main news bulletins, as if Tel Aviv was saying: “Let’s play with the players”, and “lets promote the blow,” which is unprecedented for Hezbollah, and anyway no one will hold anyone in Israeli accountable as long as the issue is about “the failure of Hezbollah”.

Generally, anyone who follows the militants’ media and the “moderate” Arab media counts thousands of casualties for Hezbollah in this year and in the passing years, in addition to hundreds of captives and abductees. Additionally, anyone who reads the militants’ websites realizes that every day or two, tens of Hezbollah elements fall and captivation operations take place, however, not one captive’s face in revealed.

In the past three years, the militants’ media killed Hezbollah Secretary General Sayyed Hasan Nasrallah twice, his deputy Sheikh Naim Qassem twice, and the cousins of Sayyed Nasrallah and his nieces and nephews more than once, as for the “killing of a major military commander” then this had no limit. Furthermore, militants’ media, in general, did not leave any Hezbollah official alive.

Fabrications are endless when it comes to the number of casualties and captives. This also applies on the military operations and the clashes. It is enough to remember that many of the militants’ media, websites, and social media pages insisted for over a month that Al-Qusayr city did not fall and that the battles were ongoing in its main field, regardless that Hezbollah elements had pulled out of the city and its countryside after having achieved their goals along with the Syrian Army. Let that be the measurement. As for the defeats of the militants in Damascus countryside and other regions, militants’ media blame Hezbollah for them, as if the Syrian Army stood neutrally and did not interfere in the fights. And the story of defeat in this form is deliberate, and its aims at causing damage to the morale of the Syrian soldiers, knowing that they are actually achieving reversed results for the benefit of the regime and the party (Hezbollah), and this is something militants are incapable of understanding and recognizing.

In the same context comes the long series of “massacres against civilians” which Hezbollah commits, specifically following any defeat for the militants. Every village or town or city which the Syrian Army regains faces a similar accusation. Everyone remembers the “Knives massacres” in Al-Qusayr for example, knowing that facts have later proven that there weren’t any civilians during the battle in the city. And just as a reminder, the “media activist” in Al-Qusayr, Hadi Abdallah, appeared through “Al-Jazeera” then to talk about a fabrication of a massacre which Hezbollah had committed against the “old men, women, and children” in Al-Qusayr, and when asked about pictures that would document the massacre, he replied with an answer which confused the newscaster, “Hezbollah stole all the bodies!”

What was said here was just the tip of the iceberg, and listing further examples and evidence would prolong the presentation. But this is the case of everyone who owns a media outlet with no information; and anyone who thinks that fabrication and exaggeration in counting and creating losses for the enemy would increase the morale of its members and demoralize the enemy, will find that the result is contrary. As the gains on the short term are very modest when compared to the losses on the long term; and the media outlet, which is described as a liar or exaggerator, cannot easily restore its position and credibility among its viewers, whether supporters or opponents.

This also applies to Lebanese media, that have always and are still spreaders of enmity, provocation, and fabrication against Hezbollah. It is true that some Lebanese are pleased with these media’s performances because they “enrage” Hezbollah and its mass, but most of this mass had undermined, a long time ago, the credibility of these media and had become aware, after a number of exposed fabrications, the truth of these media.

The current media gain, with prior awareness of the big loss in the future, including the complete loss of credibility, is a sign of media retardation, and maybe full retardation.

 

Translated by Sara Taha Moughnieh

 

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