Theocrats at Loggerheads

NPR turns for analysis of the Iran crisis to extreme right wing theocrat, Joe Loconte, a fellow at the Heritage Foundation and the Ethics and Policy Center. Loconte twists the Iran story in several key ways. He continues the misquotations in the MSM about Iran wanting to "wipe Israel off the map" (see Juan Cole's May 20, 2006 analysis of the mistranslation of this phrase). He also claims that Iran claims an inalienable "right to develop a nuclear arsenal." Iran has made no such claim, but certainly could make a case for wanting a nuclear arsenal since it seems that just such an arsenal has helped N. Korea avoid armed aggression from the Bush administration. NPR's coverage and Loconte's commentary continues the MSM coverage of Iran's nuclear ambitions completely out of context--Iran being threatened by a non-NPT Israel armed to the teeth with nuclear weapons and also being threatened with nukes and/or military strikes by a US administration that has already demonstrated an ability to launch wars of aggression. It would be great to see NPR balance the dominance of US Government viewpoints in the MSM by offering dissenting points of view, but I'm not holding my breath.