March 8 Capitulates on the Propaganda Front
Firas Choufi, al-Akhbar, Nov 7 2012

The March 14 coalition wages its media battles professionally. The people who brought us slogans like, “We Love Life,” and, “Lebanon First” have shown repeatedly, from the time of Rafik al-Hariri’s assassination to that of Wissam al-Hassan, that they know how to create a public cause. Lebanon may be too polarized for people on either side of the political divide to easily change their views, but this doesn’t make many Lebanese immune from the power of media campaigns. There’s a large bloc of Lebanese in the middle who heed to the loudest voices, regardless of whether these voices utter pearls of wisdom or absolute nonsense. Opposite the March 14 camp’s organized media front is March 8. Many in the latter camp sense a crisis in regards to media coordination with affiliated parties. Speaker of Parliament Nabih Berri alluded this much at a meeting with MPs last Wednesday. Berri joked that he was willing to offer March 14’s secretariat coordinator Fares Said a job as March 8’s coordinator. The speaker isn’t actually looking to fill the post, of course: Why would March 8 need a coordinator when it doesn’t even have a secretariat in the first place? At their gatherings, March 8 politicians, parliamentarians, and pundits regularly work themselves up over how to respond to March 14’s media assaults. They feel suckered. One source complained:

The political alliance between the March 8 groups may be harmonious, but what it lacks is a media kitchen, a group that could take charge of “coordination on an almost daily basis over the running of media campaigns not just to defend ourselves against March 14, but also to go on the offensive and exploit the opposition camp’s many blunders.

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