At any point in time, there are a lot of half-baked, unsubstatiated news article circulating in the media that I don't bother addressing, mostly because 1- there are no real facts to talk about, and 2- there are too many such items to bother with - and they're just boring. On the other hand I get regular emails asking me about my opinion on these articles. So I've decided to try to deal with them all at one time, in a single posting:
FOr example - remember the "missile parts shipment from North Korea to Iran" that, um, contained no missiles parts , and may not have really been going to Iran...?
Then there is yet another "secret document" that supposedly proves that Iran is continuing to work on nuclear weapons, supposedly. Again, there are no facts to back any of it up -- why has the IAEA not found anything to support these claims? Where did the document come from? Who disclosed it? Why now? None of these questions are answered in the reports. As far anyone knows, I could have typed up the document and faxed it to the Sunday Times myself. Normally, news organizations would not run an article which is so flimsy on facts -- but as we've seen again and again, when it comes to Iran, no such standards apply. Remember the 45-minute claim about IRaqi WMDs -- which turned out to have come from a taxi driver in Baghdad? (the funniest part of this news item about the "secret document" is that the US has said it will investigate it -- as if the US wasn't the source of the document? LOL!)
Finally, Britain's Channel 4 interview with a "Basij defector" who claims that demonstrators were rounded up into cargo holds and raped, and ballot boxes made to disappear, etc etc... and yet Channel 4 themselves say they haven't verfied any of his statements (and instead we're told we should believe it all since he seems really "disressed") and furthermore, there is an obvious disregard for the potential bias in the statements of someone seeking refugee status to manufacture stories justifying his refugee status claims.
This particular story reminds of another Iranian I knew who claimed refugee status because she supposedly converted to Christianity while visiting the US and would therefore suffer harm if sent back to Iran...She even went to church a few times and started carrying the bible around with herself. The immigration authorities in the US who hear hundreds of such stories regularly were wise to such tricks and rejected her claim; she went back to Iran, where she's living and working in peace. I even heard of some people claiming to be gay in order to get refugee status. There are of course human rights abuses in Iran but that doesn't mean that the media should just run with any old story they find based simply on the fact that the person "seems so distressed". Similarly distressed storytellers from, say, Palestine, would not be getting similar coverage nor would the journalists violate basic principles of ethics by personally vouching for their honesty.
The Basidji on Channel 4 is engaging in what members of law enforcement refer to as a "compliant false confession", in this case for reward.
He's not the only one. Dr. Hejazi's differing testimonies over the Neda incident also require critical scrutinizing. I actually emailed him with a very brief list of questions regarding his recent PBS Frontline interview. To date, I've yet to receive a reply.
I agree with you, Cyrus. When it comes to Iran, most times any sort of journalistic integrity is rushed to be thrown out the window, all in an effort to demonize Iran.
Posted by: Pirouz | December 17, 2009 at 01:15 PM