Why did warmongering NBC and Richard Engel lie about identity of kidnappers?

Could it be because not just the NBC and their "journalists" but the lying gangs in the MSM of the USA, UK and Canada are in cahoots with each other and their orders are coming from the very, very few who own most of the MSM?  How desperately the warmongers tried to get USA to not only unseat Assad but to bomb and destroy that great historical country!  Not that that project was a total failure ... from what we hear on a daily basis, Syria is now just a shadow of itself.  Christianity in Syria is almost totally destroyed, Christians have fled, fleeing, killed, raped, their churches razed to the ground, the historical relics gone.
And, who or what did this to the Christians and the secular Syrians?



Lloyd Grave writing at DailyBeast
Inside Richard Engel’s Abrupt Change of Mind
Finally, a PR win for NBC: the network scooped the ‘New York Times’ with the revelation of the true identity of its chief foreign correspondent Richard Engel’s kidnappers.

Score one for image-battered NBC News, which has finally gotten the better of a rival news outlet intent on exposing its shortcomings.

The Peacock Network’s chief foreign correspondent, Richard Engel, on Wednesday night preempted a two-month-long New York Times investigation, bylined by three Times journalists and prepared with the help of six others—the sort of ambitious team effort that ordinarily would have landed on the front page but in this case was relegated to B1.

With the active involvement of NBC News President Deborah Turness and brand-new NBC News Chairman Andy Lack, who assumed formal control of the broadcast and cable news operations in a corporate shakeup earlier this month, Engel scooped the Times on its own scoop, correcting NBC’s long-held version of a harrowing December 2012 incident in which Engel and five other employees were kidnapped, blindfolded, and subjected to physical and psychological abuse for five days in civil war-torn Syria.

In his detailed, 1,700-word account—600 words longer than the Times’s story —Engel reported that contrary to his original belief, which he affirmed in television appearances and a riveting article in the April 2013 edition of Vanity Fair, he and his colleagues were not taken by Shiite Shabiha militiamen who backed Syrian President Bashar al Assad, but instead by Sunni thugs with ties to the rebel Free Syrian Army............

Rick Sterling writing at RonPaulInstituteForPeace&Prosperity
Biased Reporting on Syria in the Service of War
It has been confirmed that TV journalist Richard Engel’s kidnapping/rescue in norther Syria in late 2012 was a hoax. NBC management knew the story was probably false but proceeded to broadcast it anyway.

There are at least two good things about “Engelgate”:
* It is clear evidence of mainstream media bias in their reporting and characterization of the conflict in Syria. The kidnapping was meant to show that “bad” Assad supporters had kidnapped Richard Engel only to be rescued by the Western/Turkey/Gulf supported “good” rebels. NBC management knew the scenario was dubious but promoted it anyway.

* Engelgate is also proof that Syrian anti-government rebels consciously manipulated western media for political gain. An elaborate ruse was performed to demonize the Syrian government & supporters and to encourage more support for the anti-government rebels.

Some analysts have noted that the Engel/NBC deception is more serious than that of Brian Williams. In the Williams case a TV journalist was puffing himself up; in the Engel deception, public policy involving war and bloodshed was being influenced.

Will this confirmation of deception lead to any more skepticism about reports from and about Syria? Will there be any more critical or skeptical look at stories that demonize the Syrian government and favor the western narrative? We have a test case right now.

HRW report on “Chlorine Gas Attacks”
On April 13, Human Rights Watch (HRW) issued a report “Syria: Chemicals Used in Idlib Attack.” It begins: “Evidence strongly suggests that Syrian government forces used toxic chemicals in several barrel bomb attacks in Idlib.” HRW Deputy Director Nadim Houry accuses the Syrian government of “thumbing its nose at the (UN) Security Council and international law yet again.”

We note that the reported chlorine gas attacks took place in the exact same area where Richard Engel was kidnapped. As shown in this map, the Engel hoax took place near Maarat Misrin. ......