Glenn Greenwald: U.S. media takes the lead on Iran

[Karmadillo]

http://politics.salon.com/2012/02/14/us_media_takes_the_lead_on_iran/singleton/

U.S. media takes the lead on Iran
By Glenn Greenwald

(updated below – Update II – Update III – Update IV – Update V – Update VI)

Many have compared the coordinated propaganda campaign now being disseminated about The Iranian Threat to that which preceded the Iraq War, but there is one notable difference. Whereas the American media in 2002 followed the lead of the U.S. government in beating the war drums against Saddam, they now seem even more eager for war against Iran than the U.S. government itself, which actually appears somewhat reluctant. Consider this highly illustrative, one-minute report yesterday from the nightly broadcast of NBC News with Brian Williams, by the network’s Chief Pentagon Correspondent Jim “Mik” Miklaszewski, which packs multiple misleading narratives into one short package:

We’re told that if the U.S. ends up in a war with Iran, then “the U.S. Navy’s Fifth Fleet would be the world’s first line of defense“: because Iran is threatening the entire world, and the U.S. would be defending “the world” from this grave Persian menace. Then there’s the ominous claim that “Iranian leaders have threatened all-out war”: but that’s “if Israel launches air strikes against Iran’s nuclear program,” which would already itself be “all-out war.” The NBC story — which begins with video shots of Iranians in lab coats lurking around complex, James-Bond-villain-like nuclear-ish machines — ends with twenty seconds of scary video footage of Iranian missiles being launched, accompanied with this narration: “U.S. officials warn that Iran’s massive stockpile of ballistic missiles is the more serious threat”; after all, “within just the past few days, Iranian leaders [cue video of a scary, ranting Ahmedinijad] have threatened that if attacked, they would launch those missiles at U.S. targets.”

It’s just remarkable to watch the American media depict Iran as the threatening, aggressive party here. Literally on a daily basis, political and media figures in both the U.S. and Israel openly threaten to attack Iran and debate how the attack should happen with a casualness that most people use to contemplate what to have for lunch. The U.S. has orchestrated devastating and always-escalating sanctions which, by design, are wrecking the Iranian economy, collapsing its currency, and generating serious hardship for its 75 million citizens. The U.S. military has that country almost completely encircled. The U.S. military behemoth, and Israel’s massive nuclear stockpile and sophisticated weaponry, make the Iranian military by comparison look almost as laughable as Saddam’s. Iran’s scientists have been serially murdered on its own soil, their facilities bombarded with sophisticated cyber attacks, and dissident groups devoted to the overthrow of their government (ones even the U.S. designates as Terrorists) have been armed, trained and funded by Israel while leading American politicians openly shill for them in exchange for substantial payments.

Yet the Manichean narrative driving this NBC report is par for the media course: Iran’s aggression must be contained, and it is leaving the U.S. and Israel with no choice but to pre-emptively attack it. Most telling is how Iran is continuously depicted as though they are the ones issuing threats of aggression even though all of their threats are retaliatory: if you attack us, we will attack back. Here, for instance, was how The Washington Post – under the headline “Iran, perceiving threat from West, willing to attack on U.S. soil, U.S. intelligence report finds” — described the recent warnings about The Iranian Danger from Director of National Intelligence James Clapper:

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[The Wielding Truth]

1. You have to ask yourself, who wants to start war and who will benefit? It isn't the us.

[stockholmer]

2. Libya, now Syria, next up Iran, so bloody little debate on the US/NATO steamroller as it grinds on

This whole imperial hubris thing is like watching 2002 all over again.

http://www.csmonitor.com/World/Backchannels/2012/0213/Israel-blames-Hezbollah-and-Iran-for-attacks-on-diplomats.-Is-it-right-video

http://www.salon.com/2012/02/10/israel_mek_and_state_sponsor_of_terror_groups/singleton/

http://www.councilforthenationalinterest.org/news/opinion-a-analysis/item/1403-another-war-on-the-cheap

http://landdestroyer.blogspot.com/2012/02/string-of-global-bombings-blamed-on.html

http://www.opednews.com/articles/Iran-Falsely-Charged-with-by-Stephen-Lendman-120215-828.html

[FarLeftFist]

3. Saw FOX news beating the shit out of those wardrums the other day. Like war had begun already.

[Tierra_y_Libertad]

4. Erect bogeyman. Wave flag. Send in the assassins, drones, bombers. Demand more money for the MIC.

Works every time.

[Luminous Animal]

5. Well worth reading the entire thing.