Vogue’s fawning whitewash of Bashar Assad last March proved so embarrassing to the fashion mag, Vogue removed the article.
But it gets worse. It turns out the profile was brought about by Brown Lloyd James, a PR firm on the Syrian payroll. The Hill (via Elder of Ziyon) writes:
Brown Lloyd James agreed to a $5,000-per-month contract with the presidency of the Syrian Arab Republic in November 2010 to help with the interview and photo shoot for a glowing profile of al-Assad by the high-profile fashion magazine . . . .
The firm “liaised between the Office of the First Lady and the Vogue editorial team on the scheduling of interviews and photo shoots,” according to Department of Justice records. Brown Lloyd James also agreed to an extension of the contract for another $25,000, but its work for Syria has since ended, according to the firm.
“We look forward to an enduring and mutually beneficial relationship,” the firm wrote in its contract with the Syrian government . . . .
Here’s an example of one image from the BLJ-facilitated photo shoot with the Syrian first family.
Assad’s actions speak louder than his warm, fuzzy photo shoot. A headline/subhead combo in today’s Sunday Times lays bare the Syrian’s savagery:
Babies die as Assad’s tanks strangle city
Infants in their incubators are among the victims of the suppression of the revolt in Hama, with the current death toll as high as 400
Brown Lloyd James also had a $1.2 million deal with Libya. The conundrum, according to Mark Borkowski: At the very time when when bloodthirsty tyrants like Assad and Gaddafi are willing to spend buckets of money on PR, the regimes are so radioactive, no firm can work for them without becoming part of the story.
Funny, but I don’t see the Walt and Mearsheimer crowd decrying the Arab Lobby and its media conspiracies.
