| | | This was written by Max Blumenthal of the gray zone. This is who he is.
Blumenthal joined Lebanon's Al Akhbar newspaper in late 2011,
In 2013, Blumenthal reported from the Za'atari refugee camp on the conditions in which Syrian refugees were living. [12] [13] Blumenthal has since changed his position on Syria since leaving Al Akhbar. In 2015, he began to claim the White Helmets were connected to Al-Qaeda and anti-Assad Syrians were members of the group. [12] In his opinion they were being used as a Trojan horse, an excuse for the United States to propose having "70,000 American servicemen" invade Syria. [14]
While Blumenthal had initially expressed criticism of the Syrian government in the early stages of the country's civil war, after 2015 he started promoting views supportive of Bashar al Assad. [12] Blumenthal had allegedly mocked Syrians for preparing plastic bags to protect against alleged Syrian government chemical weapons attacks. [33] In 2019, he visited Damascus to take part in a trade union convention. He received criticism from some Syrians for allegedly promoting views that favour Assad during his visit. [34]
In discussions surrounding Russian interference in the 2016 United States elections, Blumenthal expressed skepticism of the extent of the operation and remarked that MSNBC host " Rachel Maddow's dots may never connect." He expressed concern that use of such a narrative prevented the Democratic Party in the United States from being able to "do anything progressive". [52] Peter Beinart wrote in The Atlantic that Blumenthal and Glenn Greenwald "minimize Russia’s election meddling to oppose what they see as a new Cold War." [53]
Blumenthal has supported the work of RT, the Russian-funded television propaganda network. In 2015, Blumenthal attended RT's 10 Years On Air anniversary party beside then-Lieutenant General Michael Flynn of the United States and English politician Ken Livingstone. [56] [57] [58] New Politics, a socialist journal, stated that "Max Blumenthal is ... found almost every week defending Russian foreign policy on platforms such as RT and Sputnik", and that he has defended Russia's role in the Syrian Civil War. [57] Janine di Giovanni, in The New York Review of Books, described Blumenthal as being part of the website 21st Century Wire–which she compared to InfoWars–stating that his work and affiliated group is "spread by a spectrum of far-left, anti-West conspiracy theorists; anti-Semites; supporters of Russia, Iran, and Hezbollah; libertarians; and far-right groups". [59]
In regards to Ukraine, Slawomir Sierakowski, the head of the Polish liberal, pro- European group Krytyka Polityczna, has included Blumenthal on his list of "Putin’s Useful Idiots". He has said that Blumenthal's reporting "distorts" the events of Euromaidan. [60] The Ukrainian fact-checking organization StopFake describes Blumenthal as a "pro-Russia American journalist" who is used by Russia to "spread its propaganda message". [61] |
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