Bill Kristol isn't the only sick puppy; NPR News has dropped any pretense of reporting on Iran (not a particularly new development) and is simply parroting US State Department and Pentagon views of the situation. Consider this evening. The US is apparently planning to designate the Revolutionary Guard of Iraq a "foreign terrorist organization," news that has significant implications for the likelihood of a US attack on Iran. How does NPR News deal with this on ATC? Take a look.First Jackie Northam reports on the story by talking to State Department spokesperson Sean McCormack. She opens, "For months the US has been trying to confront what it sees as increasingly dangerous Iranian behavior in a variety of ways...State Department spokesman Sean McCormack calls the powerful Revolutionary Guard 'a state within a state.'" (McCormak's voiceover comes in) "They now have tentacles into all sorts of different activities...we all know about their support for those groups that are going after our troops in Iraq...linkages with Hezbollah and other terrorist organizations... "
Then, to provide alternative views (sarcasm alert) on this issue NPR sends Rob Siegel to talk to Philip Zelikow who was a senior adviser to - guess who? - Sec. of State Rice! Zelikow is back to playing a professor of history at the University of Virginia, but still has time to work for his former boss. Speaking of the Revolutionary Guard he says, "...actually it's a large military industrial complex inside Iran - kind of like the SS in the latter part of Hitler's Germany..."
Zounds! like the SS in Hitler's Germany....what are we waiting for? Let's get those planes in the air. Reminds me of Dalia Sofer's recent comments comparing Iran to Mussolini's anti-Semitic government. And what do you know, ATC features a review of Sofer's first novel which helps stoke the hatred of Iran for its dismal human rights records - now that is the icing on the cake.
Get your war on. See you in Tehran!
[the original graphic is from the Northwestern University Library collection]
4 comments:
As Jacques Ellul pointed out, the elites have a greater need for propaganda than does the common fellow. NPropR is the perfect gray security blanket for the Honda-driving college prof who would never ever listen to Rush or Hannity, because they are "right-wing."
Nice blog, good to have someone pointing out the Mockingbirds.
The chimperor's little helper that gets you through your dying day...
Gawdz, just when you think they can't be any more bleepin' sucky...
New b!p!f!b! pet peeve! - the sound of Robeyyyyrt Cheekle's tongue clicking against the roof of his mouth as he inhales and prepares to annoy you with his faux-confrontational line of questioning...
Oh God! I thought I was the only one fed up with warmongering National Public Radio. I quit listening just before the Iraq invasion, when they had Robert Kagan shaking his dewlaps over war.
And I detest the smirky tone the announcers take ("But not EVeryone agrees with the President . . . ") when covering anything anti-Bush.
Used to love NPR, now I hate it with a passion. Yet there are still so many sincere left-leaning anti-Iraq war people out there who think that NPR gives them "unbiased" news (and Garrison Keillor and Car Talk and the doctor guy too)! Never wanted to smack sense into people so much in my life.
Post a Comment