The latest round of propaganda videos released by the Islamic State suggest the terrorist group is altering its media approach to directly counter what the mainstream Western media is saying about it.
The two most recently released videos both feature British hostage John Cantlie, a captive journalist who has been used by ISIS as a spokesperson of sorts during the last month of his captivity. The first was the latest release of a propaganda video series called "Lend Me Your Ears."
In the most recent installment of this series, Cantlie reads a script that directly addresses a number of details reported by The New York Times in its Sunday cover story, "The Horror Before the Beheadings," as well as older news stories.
Award-winning reporter Rukmini Callimachi researched the piece for several months, interviewing former ISIS hostages and their families to paint a picture of what life is like for those who have been captured and released or killed by the group. It revealed many new details about the captivity and deaths of American journalists James Foley and Steven Sotloff, and British aid worker Alan Henning, who were all beheading victims of ISIS.
Callimachi reported that Foley, the first of the hostages to be publicly beheaded, was treated extremely harshly: He suffered waterboarding, beating, starvation, interrogation, and unspeakable torture, primarily due to his connection to the American military through relatives, as well as his work as a journalist.