Iran: The Propaganda Never Stops

All men -- whether they go by the name of Americans or Russians or Chinese or British or Malayans or Indians or Africans -- have obligations to one another that transcend their obligations to their sovereign societies. -Norman Cousins, author, editor, journalist and professor (1915-1990)

Here is a quote that I picked up today, and reading your article this quote wanted to speak here.

Tell it, sister.
Experiencing the world through the US media for anyone who travels is like re-entering The Cone of Ignorance.
Most Americans can tell you endless inane and intimate details about the life of Britney Spears, or Paris Hilton, but couldn't find Iran or on a map to save their life. Yet on Faux News they absorb a background feed of hyped misinformation that lets them absorb the idea that Iran is the current threat, the current enemy to be hated.
An even more perfect realization of Orwell's Big Brother media; now in color, and suitable for the media enforced short attention span.
The unrestricted barrage of commercials and 'information free' teasers that dominate every form of mass communication in the U.S. is startling to someone who has seen more any alternative media with a modicum of respect for their audience.
For those who haven't, it must be like being a creature in the vast ocean, naturally uncomprehending the very idea of water.

true, unfortunately...you'll never convince about half our country of this

Speaking generally, I agree with your assessment of the American media -- IF you are limiting yourself to the evening news broadcasts on television, the local newspaper and a handful of news magazines. If you are willing to dig just a little to find the periodicals that are more principled in their approach to journalism, to subscribe to a few newsletters from concerned national and regional organizations that dedicate themselves to issues like human rights, freedom of speech, freedom from torture, interpretation of the American Constitution and the like, those sources ARE out there. I doubt that 75-85% of the American public knows this or would care even if they did. But if YOU want to be informed, the tools are out there (and I suspect a fair percentage of the people who frequent this site already know this).

As to Iran, surely I am not the only person who has difficulty sometimes knowing what information to believe even when it is available. I have read stories that give me great hope and stories that horrify or disturb me. I have heard things from the very mouth of their President that anger and sadden me greatly. Yet I have read posts from Iranians that make me think, at bottom, that we -- and people everywhere -- are not so different.

And finally as to what the "Government" wants. The lack of specificity in such comments always sticks in my craw. Everyone on this site knows that Congress, for example, is made up of a group of nearly 600 men and women whose views are often so divergent and fiercely held that one would not piss on another if he or she suddenly burst into flames. And yet these people are spoken of as thought they are of one mind in their desire to: keep us ignorant, keep us poor, create a single world government, keep us from our drugs, keep us drugged, etc, etc. If you mean the Obama Administration, SAY so. If you mean the Conservative wing of the Supreme Court, say THAT. If you mean the Head of the Food and Drug Administration, then refer to HER! Just sayin'...

wow.

I appreciate you writing such a long piece. I am qualified (i think) to speak about Iran. I lived there in 1976, 1977 and 1978.

All in the reign of Shah.

I have loved and enjoyed more than anywhere I have lived since (apart from my own native Ireland perhaps). The hospitality is amazing.....the people are so gentle and generous. But.....how could I ever expect anyone subjected to all the propaganda in the media to believe that.

I love Iran.

I read ROBERT FISK.

I read DAHR JAMIEL.

I read JOHN PILGER.

now read Jonathan Cook on the media:

Preface

I have followed the work of the Media Lens website for several years and greatly admire their efforts to open the reading public’s eyes to the distortions presented as “objective”reporting by the mainstream British media.
A recent alert from them prompted me to send them an account of my own newspaper career. The full, 6,500-word email, including much about my early work as a reporter on local newspapers, can be viewed here
A shorter version, concentrating on my years on national newspapers, was published as a guest media alert on their website. The text is below:

Media Lens
October 7, 2008
Media Alert: Intellectual Cleansing – Part 2

Preface

I have followed the work of the Media Lens website for several years and greatly admire their efforts to open the reading public’s eyes to the distortions presented as “objective”reporting by the mainstream British media.
A recent alert from them prompted me to send them an account of my own newspaper career. The full, 6,500-word email, including much about my early work as a reporter on local newspapers, can be viewed here
A shorter version, concentrating on my years on national newspapers, was published as a guest media alert on their website. The text is below:

Media Lens
October 7, 2008
Media Alert: Intellectual Cleansing – Part 2
Former Guardian and Observer Journalist Jonathan Cook Responds
In response to Part 1 of this alert, the former Guardian and Observer journalist, Jonathan Cook, emailed us:
“I woke up after four hours sleep my head buzzing with recollections of my early years in journalism. I've been sitting and writing ever since, trying to make sense of it all. It's quite therapeutic and more revealing about how the media work than I had appreciated before. Your alert really has set off processes in my head.” (Email to Media Lens, October 3, 2008)
A short piece Cook initially sent us on this theme was brilliant, in fact one of the most honest and insightful media analyses we have seen. The key point he made is that crude sackings of the kind we highlighted “are a great rarity”:
“Editors hardly ever need to bare their teeth against an established journalist because few make it to senior positions unless they have already learnt how to toe the line.”
But Cook didn’t stop there. He appears to have spent most of the weekend October 4-5 writing a 6,500-word piece which had the effect of “reframing my career in a way that finally makes sense to me”. We have published an edited version of this below. The full article is available on our website:
We would like to express our sincere thanks to Jonathan Cook for the time, energy and thought he has put into his response.
Introduction
Jonathan Cook is a British journalist based in Nazareth, Israel. His reports on Israel-Palestine have been published in numerous journals and websites including the Guardian, the Observer, the Times, Al Jazeera, New Statesman, International Herald Tribune, Al-Ahram Weekly (Cairo), The National (Abu Dhabi), Electronic Intifada and Counterpunch. His new book, published this month, is ‘Disappearing Palestine: Israel’s Experiments in Human Despair’ (Zed Books). His two earlier books are ‘Blood and Religion’ (Pluto Books, 2006) and ‘Israel and the Clash of Civilisations’ (Pluto Books, 2008). He has his own website at www.jkcook.net.

I learnt this myself the hard way when I moved to Israel to report on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Naively, I assumed that, in line with my vision of the ideal journalist as an investigative reporter, a Woodward or a Bernstein, that I should be trying to find exclusives, stories no other reporter knew about. After all, most newspapers still include as their motto some variation on the claim to be "First with the news".
What I discovered, however, was that, when I rung up the news desk back in London, the editor would always start by asking me where else the story had been published. Paradoxically, when I said it was an exclusive, I could hear his interest wilt. Even though he knew I had a great deal of experience, he did not want to take a chance on a story that no one else had reported.
On run-of-the-mill stories too, the demand from the news desk was the same: could I get an official source to confirm the story? It happened even when I had seen something with my own eyes. And an official source meant an Israeli source. It felt almost as if the Israeli government and army had to give their seal of approval before a story could be published.
In fact, more than 95 per cent of the reports filed by Britain’s distinguished correspondents in Jerusalem originate in stories they have seen published either by the world’s two main news agencies, Reuters and Associated Press, or in the local Israeli media. Exclusives are almost unheard of. The correspondent’s main job is to rewrite the agency copy by adding his own "angle"; usually a minor matter of emphasis in the first paragraphs or an addition of a few quotes from an official contact.
This reliance on the wires is in itself a very effective way of filtering out news that challenges dominant interests. The agencies, dependent for survival on funding from the large media groups, are extremely deferential to the main Western power elites and their allies. This is for two chief reasons: first, large media owners like the Murdoch empire might pull out of the arrangement, or even set up their own rival agency, were Reuters or AP regularly to run stories damaging to their business interests; and second, the agencies, needing to provide reams of copy each day, rely primarily on official sources for their information.

Highr0ller,

I have read and re-read your post here this evening, I must say you have put some fascinating information down here. From my personal view, I want to thank you for sharing some of your experience.

There are so many layers to the information business. I suppose that going from the top down, it starts out a game, and ends up with real human beings lives being tossed about as if they were some games pieces on the game board of life.

I applaud you and the obvious dedication you show toward writing the honest news as you are able to see first hand. When enough folks begin to really wake up, and really want the true stories, they can find them, thanks to dedicated people like you.

It is the duty of the media to keep Americans stupid and in the process continue captialize of this process by feeding the people with brainwashing commercials to keep us sick and immpobilized. We are nothing more that puppets just like the Iraqi leadership is. But our Media makes billions to keep us stupid. Rush Limbaugh makes millions to pit us against each other with lies and contaminated conservative values. Sean Hannity, Bill O'Reilly all of these Jackasses are wealthy. And should be put away from the American society. Iran has a beligerent president and we had that idiot for eight years and now we have I dont know What yet. But one thing is for sure the innocent peaceful, intelligent Iranians and they are many do not deserve what Israel and Americans plan.

you forgot maddow oberman the crazy chicks from the view and 90% of the rest of the media on your wall of shame ragan goes both ways i listen to allot of radio i have listened to the dark prince limbaugh most of his antics are sarcasm.I am amazed by the democrat message control from SNL to The new york times most of the political stories are exactly the same thing.We are being worked from both sides.Iran would be perfectly safe from the evil american goverment if it wasnt ruled by islamic lunatics and wernt working so hard to get a bomb and wasnt the state supplier for most the terrorist in the world.or perhaps you think they want to build a reactor because they care so much about climate change.

Iran is about as innocent as Pakistan.

Hey there,

Thanks for adding this! It's interesting, but not relevant to the Art and Style topic, so I'm untagging it from that topic.

Best,
Steph
Online Community Team

A lot of information is out there for anyone wishing to educate himself on the workings of the world. While common normal people are going through their normal lives there is a part of this world living in a protective cover dictating the events of the world. Its like they make up a roster and set out to recruit the necessary people to carry out their orders. View John perkins interview, "Confessions of an Economic Hitman" There must be thousands of books to read on what is happening, what has happened and what is going to happen and it isnt nice. In fact what is coming is what Biden promised death and genocide. Read Zbigniew Bzrezinski's "The Grand Chessman" and what he proposed ten years ago and it is coming true. The war in Georgia and Russia's invasion is only a sample of what is coming. I am bothered by Obama's talk about increasing the military to 500,000 and requesting the young boys to enlist in the service. If Obama is going to change the world just what picture is he painting? I see a horizon with big flashes and big guns rumbling and more flag drapped coffins. just what has the American people to look forward to. All of you married young people, I ask you, Do you want to bring your children into this world knowing it is going to be facing a life in the military and promises of riches and education? There is always a good chance you will never live to see it come true. Imagine a world with three or four billion people and only about one or two thousand of the worlds elite controlling all of these people, dictating their every move. I recently watched for a second time the Hollywood production of: "State of the Union" and I realized that for years Hollywood has tried to tell us that we are corrupt but we always accept these scenes of corruption as entertainment and that is what elections are all about, entertainment. But the reason for all of the wars from our past including the ethnic cleansing of the Indian population and how we became the United States and also how Hawaii became an American State. Americans should be schooled in the real history, not the rosy images portrayed in our schools. Our past is not a pretty set of images beginning with the settlements in Massachusetts Bay Colony. One might just say that it all began the minute the white man set foot on North American soil. Just a few years later 80 od these men massacres the entire Pequot tribe and even bragged about it. These men prove to me that even animals are not that viscious. and we havent changed a bit. Iran is a nation of people not a war mongering nation. Instead of Fighting the Arab nations we should be fighting all of the religious ignorance that is prevalent throughout the world. Instead of ethnic cleansing, we should be wiping religious ignorance and arrogance and instilling the truth and peace in the people and nations.

america should retrieve all of its military from around the world and conquer this hemisphere from canada to the tip of south america

This has been the most interesting thread on Current that I have read in months. It is gratifying to see and read that at least some people realise that regardless of the country that you live in or the ideology of its government, what you know (and therefore what you think and say) is determined entirely by what you read, watch and listen to.

In almost every country (certainly in the western world)there are numerous sources of information but every source has its own objectives, needs to sell advertsing and needs to stay in business and hence not one can be trusted on its own as a reliable source.

I have lost count of the number of times my own family have told me a story that has alarmed them but on closer inspection it turns out that they read it "in the paper" and that the story had no basis in fact. Unfortunately, the TV or radio is convenient and takes almost no effort unlike reading journals and poltical analysis via the web. There must be a direct inverse relation between the determination of a person to find the truth and the ease in which it is found.