Friday, November 30, 2007

Setting the Table

If there is a US or Israeli attack on Iran in the next year or so, NPR will have blood on its hands (and its forearms and its elbows and ...). If you are doubtful just click on the "Iran" label below to see what a loyal drummer for war against Iran NPR has been. This morning was no exception as NPR aired a piece on the "threat" of Iran.

Renee Montagne begins this latest installment with "...analysts say one reason so many Arab states attended the peace conference in Maryland was because of a shared concern about Iran's aggressive moves in the region and especially its nuclear ambitions which many believe are aimed at acquiring nuclear weapons."

Peter Kenyon then comes on and teams up with - guess who? - "expert" analyst, former Israeli Defense Forces colonel Ephraim Kam. Kenyon notes that Kam says "at least for the coming months, efforts to prevent Iran from acquiring nuclear weapons remain focused on diplomacy." Kenyon drives home the make war theme of the report: "Left unspoken is the conviction of many in Israel that a military strike may become necessary. Kham says Israel and the US are the only two countries with the capability and the political will to carry this out."

It is galling that NPR broadcasts such sloppy, unsubstantiated propaganda for war on Iran. Montagne's "analysts say" leaves one wondering What analysts? Who do they work for? What is their background? She says "Iran's aggressive moves" without offering one shred of evidence to support such a provocative claim because - of course - there is no such evidence. Any unbiased assessment would note that Iran is not a threat, and that the US and Israel are the serial aggressors in the region (and would point out that Israel is the original and only rogue nuclear state in the Middle East.)

One has to admire Kenyon-Kam's chutzpah. That dreadful passive voice of "may become necessary" is nifty. Necessary for who? Why necessary? And then "political will"? Excuse me, Peter, just who's will are we talking about? (Also, the irony of "will" is excruciating).

Listening to NPR, you get a sense that not only are "all options on the table," but NPR has joined the crazies to fold the napkins, fill the glasses and put out the plates and forks. Come and get it!

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

On a similar slant, last evening's edition of Bill Moyer's Journal (which along with NOW & Frontline kick their public radio counterparts right in their false teeth!) did a stark examination of Christians United for Israel and excerpted their rock-concert flag-waving adrenaline-raising convention, all ringled by that pontificating, sensationalizing doughball John Hagee - some scary stuff, for sure. Shrewd puppetmaster & his puppets - nothing new under the sun, yes? Anyway, part of the deal was painting their portrait of Ahmadinejad as Satan incarnate. Seems as though the goal of these corkheads is to manifest their pitiful distortions of biblical prophesy into their own self-fulfilling prophesy for lighting the fuse for their sugarplum visions of Armageddon.

bunny puke

Porter Melmoth said...

Spit-up stuff, to be sure. I hope your big!pink!fuzzy!-ness is wash and wear.

After the Hagee horrors though, Bill had two very sane, sensible and civilized guests, one Jewish, the other Evangelical, who elegantly put lard-depository Hagee & Co. in their proper place: as a noisy but really rather inconsequential band of fruitcakes, who are in love with something that might be labeled as Christo-Fascism, or whatever. When his 15 minutes have passed, Hagee will be less of a footnote than Jimmy Swaggart now is.

Anonymous said...

Good uptick, Porter. I was too sickened by the bad stuff to accentuate the positive. Well, Condi's gonna make things all nice and better - in her shoe closet, at least!