Jussie Smollett hate-crime hoax? What about Douma poison gas hoax?

On February 13 Riam Dalati, for years an on-site producer for BBC Syria, announced on Twitter to his 20,000 followers that after a six month-long investigation he'd personally conducted, he could "prove without a doubt that the Douma hospital scene was staged” and “no fatalities had occurred in the hospital.” 

Dalati added that he believed that an attack did happen (in Douma) but no Sarin was used and “everything else around the attack was manufactured for maximum effect.”

BBC brass quickly sprang into executive action, stating unsurprisingly that Dalati's conclusion was just his opinion. The Beeb had strongly promoted the video of the hospital scene that the White Helmets had provided the news media, which showed civilians being treated for effects of a poison gas attack. 

Media saturation coverage of the video in the U.K. and U.S. and another provided by the White Helmets had helped the British, French, and American governments rationalize missile strikes on Syrian Army facilities less than a week after the Douma hospital incident and place blame on Bashar al-Assad, Syria's President:  

“These are not the actions of a man,” President Trump said of last weekend’s suspected chemical attack in a televised address from the White House Diplomatic Room. “They are crimes of a monster instead.”

Now a BBC producer was claiming he had proof that the poison gas attack at the hospital was a hoax. This was unacceptable to the British government. Mr Dalati still clings to his job but changed his Twitter account to "protected" status while the Russian government requests that he share the evidence he collected to back up his claim.

To my knowledge Dalati's stunning announcement that a hoax had been perpetrated and the uproar that followed wasn't reported in the American mainstream media -- not on radio, television or in the press; the news was only available at a handful of sites on the internet.   

Fast forward to February 19.

For three weeks there's been saturation media coverage in the U.S. of an alleged hate crime in Chicago, Illinois against a black, homosexual American TV actor named Jussie Smollett that on police investigation turned out to be a hoax staged by the actor himself; this, according to Chicago's Superintendent of Police Eddie Johnson during a press conference February 19 to announce Smollett had turned himself in to police to face the charge of disorderly conduct for filing a false police report. In the state of Illinois that's a Class 4 felony, which can carry a prison sentence of up to 3 years. 

It was some presser. The superintendent, an African-American and lifelong Chicago resident, was furious that Smollett had dragged his city through the mud to carry out a vicious, self-serving hoax that mocked the seriousness of hate crimes and cost the Chicago police department -- and FBI -- buckets of money and many man hours to thoroughly investigate Smollett's complaint.

The commissioner was also furious at America media commentators and celebrities for glorifying Smollet as a victim of homophobia and racial injustice as soon as the story broke.

His remarks at the presser touched off a media uproar. 

America's President jumped into the uproar; taking to Twitter he asked Smollett, "What about MAGA?"

President Trump reacted Thursday to the news that Jussie Smollett has been charged with falsifying a police report about a racist and homophobic attack by men allegedly shouting “MAGA country.”

“What about MAGA and the tens of millions of people you insulted with your racist and dangerous comments!? #MAGA” Trump tweeted, referring to his campaign slogan, “Make America Great Again.” [...]

Yes, well. The truth will out. Isn't it so, Mr Trump?

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