The Feast and Famine of Iran Coverage in US Media
18 June 2009 5:37 pm by Betsy
http://tinyurl.com/mw3n9h
I thought this was well worth posting because I believe what she writes is very true. It seems that the media is only interested in sensationalism.
Take for instance what she says about Ahmadenijad’s holocaust cartoon exhibit.
snip
Those of us who follow Iran closely detected a direct correlation between lack of reporting on the state of the activists and minorities and the number of executions and detentions. What Iran’s rulers may or may not do with the nuclear bomb in the future remains to be seen. But the coverage of Iran’s nuclear development cast such a shadow over all other events in Iran that the phantom bomb has already devastated the lives of hundreds of activists who either perished or are languishing in obscurity in prisons. Iran’s chief pyromaniac, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, knows well how to ignite the headlines. His proposed Holocaust cartoon exhibit generated thousands of reports about his intentions. But when the exhibit began and its halls went unfrequented, it was barely reported. His arsonous rhetoric against Israel so blinded the attentions in its blaze that no one could see the valiant journalists and intellectuals who were arrested for criticizing him for diverting much needed funds at home to Hamas and Hezballah.
snip
It’s too bad that the msm can’t report everything instead of snippets.
This post was submitted by Betsy.
No tags for this post.
Many things at play here, but here are a couple…
It’s also about $ and cents and what sells. News is now a biz, not just for public info. Also, being blunt, most of the public doesn’t care about foreign policy, which is particularly true in a recession.
The other issue is that with the rise of religion in politics, there has only been one side of the Middle East story told for a very long time, especially after we burned ourselves with the Shah.
“The Feast” will be like the 7 fish and 7 loves if the Green Revolution moves the system in Iran. Artists, writers, journalists will begin to tell, and re-tell the stories that have been dormant to the outside. The ones who will benefit are those of us that have been fed a distorted view of the Iranian people. Partly by the their rulers but partly by our own information filters.
I would like to visit Iran, within the not to distant future hopefully.
GeoT, my husband used to fly into Tehran when he was in the AF. It was one of the stops on his Embassy flights that he had to fly. This was in the early and mid 60s. I have a beautiful coffee table that is copper dipped in nickel with etchings that one of the Iranian artists did. It is absolutely beautiful. I also remember that if there was a crew member who had red hair, if the flight was stopping in Tehran they could not go because that to the Iranians is a sign of the devil.
I was just on Mousavi’s Facebook page and he said that he and Karoubi ask that his supporters NOT attend the Friday prayer, which is being delivered by Khamenei. Interesting.