The Middle East Media Sampler 6/12/2012: Media Helps Do PR For Murderers

From DG:

Extreme makeover, Assad edition 

Bill Carter and Amy Chozick of the New York Times explore the way the Assads sought to remake their image in Syria’s Assads Turned to West for Glossy P.R.:

The campaign to make the ruling family the face of a more Westernized and open Syria began in 2006, when Mrs. Assad approached the public relations firm Bell Pottinger in London.