After being victims of multiple false and propagandistic media campaigns one would think that we would be able to read between the lines when our mainstream media sources act in lockstep with one another in marketing the agenda du jour.
Have we already forgotten the “flowers and candy” which the gracious Iraqi people were going to greet us with? You know, as “Liberators.” The weapons of mass destruction? The fear campaign waged against us to surrender our national treasure to a few Wall Street firms? When the mainstream media moves together in uniform, repeating the same talking points, it’s time to get suspicious, not complacent.
As soon as Ahmadinejad was declared the victor in Iran’s election EACH of our mainstream media sources were ready to cry foul and dismiss the results as an “obvious” fraud. One might think that a functioning media would produce ONE inquisitive reporter that was brave enough to even entertain the idea that Ahmadinejad, the incumbent with extremely high support in the country’s rural and poor areas, actually won. Unfortunately, we don’t have reporters like that in our mainstream media (which is why their readership continues to plummet).
If you doubt that the Iranian election media bombardment was deliberate, ask yourself – Do you know who won last months Panamanian election ? Did you even know there was an election? It’s not your fault if you don’t. Actually, I don’t see how you could know without a functioning media.
Have you heard much about the democratic elections in Saudi Arabia lately? Of course not. They don’t have elections. Any media outrage for the people of Saudi Arabia? A country ruled by one of the most repressive regimes on the planet. But hey, they’re our allies. We don’t talk about them (and certainly won’t tweet it).
What about the 2006 (monitored) democratic election in Gaza in which the people resisted western threats and bribes and elected Hamas as their leader? We responded by punishing the people of Gaza and cutting aid to the region. Well, they committed a supreme crime. They voted the wrong way and must be punished for it. I’m waiting for a sympathetic
#GazaElection hashtag on Twitter, though I won’t hold my breathe.
Have you heard ANYTHING from the mainstream media of the democratically elected governments that we REMOVED? The fact is that we don’t care about democratic elections.
Dr. Michael Parenti, is one of the nations leading political scholars. In his book “
Against Empire,” Parenti tells us that “The United States has overthrown democratically elected governments in Guatemala, Guyana, The Dominican Republic, Brazil,
Pakistan (including recent toppling of Musharraf Government), Chile, Uruguay, Syria, Indonesia, Greece, Argentina, Bolivia, Haiti, and numerous other nations were overthrown by pro-capitalist militaries that were funded and aided by the US national security state.”
The Iran election hype has nothing to do with democracy and everything to do with effecting US public opinion. Why are “Iranians” microblogging in English and on Twitter (which they do NOT use)? According to Mehdi Yahyanejad, manager of a Farsi-language news site based in Los Angeles, “Twitter’s impact inside Iran is zero… here, there is lots of buzz, but once you look . . . you see most of it are Americans tweeting among themselves.” The
Alexa rankings confirm that Twitter’s penetration in Iran is nearly 0%.

The United States is the last country on earth that Iran wants attention from. They certainly don’t want us involved in their elections. We’ve already removed a democratically elected government in Iran during the 1953 coup d’etat of Iranian Prime Minister Mohammed Mosaddeq. I’d venture to guess that most of the people expressing sympathy for the “Iranian Students” on twitter would have a hard time finding Iran on a map. Those that could would quickly realize that on either side Iran’s borders lies 2 countries which we are very familiar with – Iraq and Afghanistan. Both of which are militarily occupied by our armies. Both ruled by our puppet governments.
Ask yourself – If Iran’s army invaded and occupied both Canada and Mexico, would we want their “Help”? Would we find popular Iranian websites and keep them informed of our nation’s vulnerabilities in their native Farsi?
The media campaign, however obvious it is to some of us, has probably been successful. I’ll bet that if you poll the American people today (and they probably will), you’d find that 40-50% would support military involvement in Iran to “Help” with their elections. I’d also assume that those 40-50% are the same people (more or less) who believed we invaded Iraq because of 9-11, another testament to the effectiveness of propaganda marketing.
4 comments:
Alexa ratings are based on people who have the Alexa client installed. All that proves is that people in Iran don't use Alexa.
It makes sense to be cynical about such things, but then again you are ignoring that the MSM was slow to pick up the Iran story, prompting #CNNFAIL threads on twitter. It is hard to simultaneously argue that American's don't care about Democracy then to claim that on twitter is is mostly Americans "talking to each other". To me, that discourse suggests that we do actually care about democracy. It makes sense for Iranians to appeal to Americans when it comes to the idea of fighting for a free election, it is what we are known for. So even if American's don't really care about democracy, we still care about people who do and I don't think that is such a bad thing. Also, changes in technology have always changed the way we perceive international events, I don't think it is an active media conspiracy so much as a natural evolution centered around media changes. There is a great story about it here: http://www.newsy.com/videos/protests_in_perspectives
Wonderful and insightful from your priveleged distance. Not so if you know anyone who has lived through the dictatorship in Iran. Its a population that has had enough and it has nothing to do with america.
and yes i agree keep your army at home for a change.
but america is following this, not leading. hard to swallow i know.
You mean the $400 million the US is spending on creating insurrection in Iran is for milk and honey? "the dictatorship in Iran" just shows were you are REALLY from; anyone in Iran knows there is no one person with absolute power there.
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