How CNN helped spread a hoax about Syrian babies dying in incubators

by Ali Abunimah
Electronic Intifada
Aug. 09, 2011

Submitted by Ali Abunimah on Mon, 08/08/2011 - 00:27 A disturbing story is circulating on social networks — especially in Arabic — and some news media that a number of premature babies died in their incubators when Syrian forces cut off electricity to hospitals during their assault on the city of Hama.

Evidence suggests it is a cruel hoax, and the pictures of the “dead babies” widely circulated online are false.

To me the story was immediately suspicious. First of all it sounded too much like the false reports of invading Iraqi troops throwing babies out of incubators in Kuwait in August 1990 — reports that were used to build public support and urgency for the 1991 Gulf War. These claims were part of an elaborate propaganda effort by the Washington PR consultancy Hill & Knowlton hired by the Kuwaiti government.

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