When Principles of Journalism are Betrayed
Mehran Bahramian | 21.02.2012 15:29 | Anti-Nuclear | Repression | Terror War | Cambridge | World
The articles looks at the various reports published about the assassination of Iranian nuclear scientists, and then tries to work out the reason behind reports which came out on the subject by anonymous officials. Taking into account that quoting un-named officials is a well known tactic often used by dictatorial regimes, the article tries to find out the reasoning behind the issue.
In an article by Richard Engel and Robert Windrem in NBC Rock Centre TV program website titled ‘’ Israel teams with terror group to kill Iran's nuclear scientists’’ a number of allegations were made against the mullah’s main opposition, the People’s Mudjahedin Organization of Iran (PMOI).
Sources mentioned in the article were anonymous senior US officials and Mohammad Javad Larijani a senior aide to Iran’s supreme leader Ali Khamenei.
The information was also based on US State department's 1994 report.
Contrary to my expectation on the credibility of NBC news, I was rather taken by surprise and puzzled when started reading the article and saw the that the sources were named as anonymous senior US officials without mentioning whether they are current or former officials who have comer to reveal such classified information.
Mohammad Javad Larijani, a senior aide to Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, Iran's supreme leader, has alleged collusion between the MeK and Israel to assassinate Iranian nuclear scientists. Such a statement is of course to be expected from a high ranking official in the Iranian regime. But to come from a high ranking U.S. official would be surprising and unintelligent.
A report published by the US State Department in 1994 was discredited both by the Congress and by a 400 pages factual and solid document presented by PMOI titled ‘Democracy Betrayed’’.
As a matter of fact, both the Israeli government and the PMOI have totally denied the allegations made in the NBC report.
Before making any other annotations about the article, I would rather mention the remarks made by some of the distinguished US personalities on the issue.
New York’s previous mayor Rudolph GUILIANI: ‘’There is a leak that is all around the place that MEK assisted the Israeli government in assassinating one or two of the nuclear scientists in Iran. The MEK has unequivocally denied this. The leak is based on a report from a funky Ayatollah, a complete liar and criminal, and it is supported by two unknown people in the State Department who committed felonies if they confirmed the rumor true or untrue. Whether the rumor is true or untrue, if these two people in the Pentagon, or rather in the State Department, confirmed this rumor, then they are people that should be going to prison, they are felons. I don't know how we evaluate this other than to say that whatever proof there is, it's coming from liars."
FBI former Director Louis Freeh: "This silly article that the mayor spoke about, I mean, give me a break. Anonymous sources, by the way, they didn't say current U.S. officials, so who knows who anyone is talking about. The same propaganda that has come out of the regime and the RIGC doesn't make any sense. Plus, we are in weekly contact with the most senior policy makers in the United States, the State Department, and some of my colleagues will allude to that when they speak. No one has even made a remote veiled redaction of this kind. There is no substance to this. It's silly. We would love to question the reporter and the sources if we could. It's irrelevant."
Governor Howard Dean : "And then we see the United States government, two people who didn't have the courage to name themselves in public, prop up the corrupt Iranian administration by confirming it. Those two anonymous individuals did two things; if it is true, which I think is unlikely, then they committed treason, because they have done something which is directly counter to the American national security. If it is not true, they simply committed the everyday Washington crime of lying to a reporter."
MR. BERNSTEIN the famous political journalist who exposed one of America's greatest stories in corruption The Water Gate, said ‘’one of the things we do as journalists when we decide what is news is we decide what portion of the story is devoted to what we know to be fact and what portion of the story is devoted to what we know is lie. And yes, we put in there, in our stories, the part that is lie, but we have a responsibility to point out when that part of the story is lie. And two, we have a responsibility not to inflate the lie and give it equal time to what we know is the truth.’’
Reviewing the facts and the comments, one wonders if there is an Israel-PMOI who killed Iran's nuclear scientists, or the NBC team with the Ayatollahs and mullahs in Iran, who attempted to discredit the main legitimate Opposition group who has pledged for democracy and freedom for Iranian People.
Sources mentioned in the article were anonymous senior US officials and Mohammad Javad Larijani a senior aide to Iran’s supreme leader Ali Khamenei.
The information was also based on US State department's 1994 report.
Contrary to my expectation on the credibility of NBC news, I was rather taken by surprise and puzzled when started reading the article and saw the that the sources were named as anonymous senior US officials without mentioning whether they are current or former officials who have comer to reveal such classified information.
Mohammad Javad Larijani, a senior aide to Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, Iran's supreme leader, has alleged collusion between the MeK and Israel to assassinate Iranian nuclear scientists. Such a statement is of course to be expected from a high ranking official in the Iranian regime. But to come from a high ranking U.S. official would be surprising and unintelligent.
A report published by the US State Department in 1994 was discredited both by the Congress and by a 400 pages factual and solid document presented by PMOI titled ‘Democracy Betrayed’’.
As a matter of fact, both the Israeli government and the PMOI have totally denied the allegations made in the NBC report.
Before making any other annotations about the article, I would rather mention the remarks made by some of the distinguished US personalities on the issue.
New York’s previous mayor Rudolph GUILIANI: ‘’There is a leak that is all around the place that MEK assisted the Israeli government in assassinating one or two of the nuclear scientists in Iran. The MEK has unequivocally denied this. The leak is based on a report from a funky Ayatollah, a complete liar and criminal, and it is supported by two unknown people in the State Department who committed felonies if they confirmed the rumor true or untrue. Whether the rumor is true or untrue, if these two people in the Pentagon, or rather in the State Department, confirmed this rumor, then they are people that should be going to prison, they are felons. I don't know how we evaluate this other than to say that whatever proof there is, it's coming from liars."
FBI former Director Louis Freeh: "This silly article that the mayor spoke about, I mean, give me a break. Anonymous sources, by the way, they didn't say current U.S. officials, so who knows who anyone is talking about. The same propaganda that has come out of the regime and the RIGC doesn't make any sense. Plus, we are in weekly contact with the most senior policy makers in the United States, the State Department, and some of my colleagues will allude to that when they speak. No one has even made a remote veiled redaction of this kind. There is no substance to this. It's silly. We would love to question the reporter and the sources if we could. It's irrelevant."
Governor Howard Dean : "And then we see the United States government, two people who didn't have the courage to name themselves in public, prop up the corrupt Iranian administration by confirming it. Those two anonymous individuals did two things; if it is true, which I think is unlikely, then they committed treason, because they have done something which is directly counter to the American national security. If it is not true, they simply committed the everyday Washington crime of lying to a reporter."
MR. BERNSTEIN the famous political journalist who exposed one of America's greatest stories in corruption The Water Gate, said ‘’one of the things we do as journalists when we decide what is news is we decide what portion of the story is devoted to what we know to be fact and what portion of the story is devoted to what we know is lie. And yes, we put in there, in our stories, the part that is lie, but we have a responsibility to point out when that part of the story is lie. And two, we have a responsibility not to inflate the lie and give it equal time to what we know is the truth.’’
Reviewing the facts and the comments, one wonders if there is an Israel-PMOI who killed Iran's nuclear scientists, or the NBC team with the Ayatollahs and mullahs in Iran, who attempted to discredit the main legitimate Opposition group who has pledged for democracy and freedom for Iranian People.
Mehran Bahramian
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