A Journey "Inside Assad's Syria"

The Huffington Post ^ | 10/27/2015 | Martin Smith

[MinorityRepublican]

"You will be killed."

"Excuse me."

"You're going to be pilloried, lambasted. Yeah, you're going to be unpopular."

That was the conclusion of a colleague, someone with a lot of experience in the Middle East after watching just the opening minutes of my new FRONTLINE documentary, Inside Assad's Syria, which premieres tonight on PBS stations and online.

"Why?"

"It's the very idea of it -- going into regime-held territory. Too many people have a view of Syria that this will inevitably challenge. This is an invitation for abuse."

Another colleague told me before I left, "You will get the charm offensive. The regime's best dog and pony show. Potemkin village."

Of course I went anyway. Since 2011, coverage of the war in Syria has almost entirely come from the rebel side. Outside of a number of surprisingly repetitive and uninteresting interviews with President Bashar al-Assad, Western reporters have had limited access, especially recently. So five years into the war, life in regime-controlled areas was still largely a mystery.

[Calpublican]

His documentary may not be very useful. The interview shows he clearly has an agenda and it’s liberal. He is taking pains to be gentle with the bad decisions made by Obama and other liberal leaders.