Reporting From Iran

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http://www.readersupportednews.org/opinion2/289-134/9766-danny-schechter-reporting-from-iran

Reporting From Iran
By Danny Schechter, Reader Supported News
03 February 12


Iran seems to many observers to be next in line for the Iraqi freedom
treatment, the latest in a long line of "enemy" nations menaced by overt and
covert military threats by the United States and its allies.

As the psyops operations and media propaganda intensifies, you might think
war is imminent and that Iran is doing what countries under threat do in
these circumstances, such as mobilizing their people and preparing for a
bombing onslaught.

Think again. While I have been told that military targets have been or are
being moved around, the atmosphere in Tehran is relaxed with more talk of a
cultural battlefield than a military one. There's a commemoration under way
of the 33rd anniversary of the Iranian revolution and an international
conference on "Hollywoodism and Cinema" as an extension of an annual Fajr
film festival

And that's what I am doing here, as a guest participant in an event that
sees Hollywood as a bigger enemy than the Pentagon. It has become for them
an "ism" and is the subject of discussions over its global role in shaping
positive attitudes towards what passes for American "civilization," its
relationship to the awakenings and uprisings throughout the world - Iran's
Press TV probably devotes more coverage to Occupy Wall Street than any TV
channel - and Hollywood's alleged support for Zionism and Israel, a country
that's only cited here as "the Zionist Regime."

Israel, in turn, is even more hostile seeing Iran as an "existential
threat." Sometimes it looks like both countries - both under the influence
of religious fanaticism - need a stereotyped enemy to rally their own
populations. It is Israel that is banging the drums loudest for war.

The conference was opened by Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad who didn't
have much good to say about Hollywood , which, paradoxically, celebrated its
125th anniversary on Feb. 1.

"All those who work in Hollywood push ideas, based on getting the maximum of
profit and pleasure using any possible methods," Ahmadinejad said. "We do
not expect anything from Hollywood." Speaking softly and philosophically,
Ahmadinejad noted that people must "deliver truth and facts," so that
"masses would follow up."

About 48 foreign scholars are here, and one News Dissector (me). Most of the
president's speech was really about values more than politics emphasizing
the importance of the cultural environment. He believes it is impacted
negatively by a movie industry that does little to educate customers about
the world's crises.

He rejected Marxism and Liberalism, instead speaking of man as a creation of
God who is caught between conflicting pressures to be selfish or to serve
humanity. I am not sure that he knew that one of the Hollywood companies
leading the charge against Iran is owned by Disney (and is one I used to
work for): ABC News.

Fairness and Accuracy in Media singles out a recent ABC newscast as an
egregious example of propaganda. "America's top spy warns that Iran is
willing to launch a terrorist strike inside the U.S.," announced anchor
Diane Sawyer at the top of the program. "We'll tell you his evidence."

The ABC report was actually very light on evidence. It did, however, pass
along numerous incendiary allegations from U.S. government officials -
without the skeptical scrutiny that is real journalism's primary function.

Echoing the government, Sawyer set up the report with an assertion that Iran
is "more determined than ever to launch an attack on U.S. soil."
Correspondent Martha Raddatz, claiming that the "the saber-rattling coming
from Iran has been constant," told viewers that Director of National
Intelligence James Clapper delivered "a new bracing warning . Iran may be
more ready than ever to launch terror attacks inside the United States."

Reports like this are barely criticized in Iran because there have been so
many of them for so many years, with ABC's earlier "America Held Hostage"
series in 1980 a well known example of reporting as incitement.

After Ahmadinejad's talk, an Iranian friend pushed me into the president's
path where I tried to engage him, asking if he would be willing to talk to
American leaders. He smiled, responding, "Washington does not want to have
any dialogues." So that was a non-starter.

I then smiled back and asked if the American people have reasons to fear him
and an Iranian nuclear bomb. This time, he laughed as if I was being naïve.
(I was trying to be provocative.)

Looking up at me, he asked if I thought he was scary, and then denied that
Iran was building bombs or threatening the American people. He was very calm
as he spoke. Admittedly the evidence for Iran doing so is not very strong
and, in fact, a recent report indicated that the U.S. military wants Israel
to chill out its agitation and bombing threats.

I then told President Ahmadinejad that I have been covering Occupy Wall
Street and asked what his advice would be to them. As a charter member of
the Iranian student movement, he was quick to express admiration for those
in the streets struggling for justice in America, but added, "The Wall
Street movement has to deepen its work" by intensifying its organizing
efforts.