Aaron Maté, reporter for The Grayzone and host of the “Pushback” podcast, on Monday shot back at accusations from the hosts of The Young Turks (TYT) that he was paid by the Russian government and denied the killing of Syrian children.
In an episode of TYT, host Ana Kasparian called Maté “the guy who denies that Syrian children were killed with chemical attacks. Fuck Aaron Maté.”
Appearing on Hill.TV, Maté, who has appeared on TYT in the past, said the attack “was insane.”
“I think that that meltdown reflects just like a general hostility they have towards people who are upholding actual progressive values and upholding actual journalism standards,” Maté said.
“The reason why they slandered me at that time is because I was in Syria and Syria is a, you know, touchy subject for many people on the left. It has been divisive,” Maté added.
Maté said the criticism stemmed from his acknowledgement of the U.S. and its allies have “waged a multi-billion dollar dirty war that left Syria in ruins,” as well as his reporting that suggested a 2018 chemical attack in Syria had been staged.
Matè’s reporting has suggested that the intergovernmental chemical weapons watchdog the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) found no evidence of a chemical attack in Syria that triggered retaliatory actions from the U.S. and its allies.
“So I’ve been pretty much alone in the U.S. media in covering it and so The Young Turks, instead of covering this story, have ignored it. And then when I went to Syria and I put a short video talking about it, that helped trigger this meltdown.”
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