Press TV

Jeff Weintraub reminds us of what a disgrace Press TV is. Looking at their Iran news, the reader would have no idea that there is anything going on, let alone an uprising. This is the only inkling, which talks about "post-election unrest". Press TV is evidence for the totalitarian nature of the Iranian state.

Incidentally, among its paid employees are George Galloway, Yvonne Ridley, Tariq Ramadan, Afshin Rattansi, Greenwich's own Andrew Gilligan, and, at least until recently, Derek Conway MP. The William Joyces of the 21st century?

Complain!

(More on Gilligan. More on Ridley. More on Galloway. Full list of Iran regime apologists from Observing Iran: Abbas Barzegar, Abbas Edalat, Ali Fathollah-Nejad, Ardeshir Ommani, Arshin Adib-Moghaddam, CASMII, Darius Guppy, Elaheh Rostami-Povey, Flynt Leverett, George Galloway, Haleh Afshar, Hamid Molana, Hooman Majd, James Petras, John Rees, Just Foreign Policy, Kaveh L. Afrasiabi, Ken Ballen, Leon Kuhn, Matthew Richardson, Mazda Majidi, Mehri Honarbin-Holliday, Nader Mokhtari, Nima Shirazi, Patrick Doherty, Phil Wilayto, Roshan Muhammed Salih, Seumas Milne, Socialist Unity, Soraya Sepahpour-Ulrich, Stop the War Coalition, World Socialist Web Site, Yvonne Ridley.)

For accurate news on Iran, turn to the blogosphere: Iran Solidarity, Azarmehr, Neo-Resistance, HOPI, Maryam Namazie, Entdinglichung, Airforce Amazons.

Previous: Galloway and the tyrants; Ahmadinejad's British stooges; Ridley and Galloway; Press TV and Nicholas Kollerstrom at Wikipedia. 

Update: Jeff W sent me this e-mail:

I just saw your useful post on Press TV, with its useful round-up of propagandists and apologists for the Iranian regime.  I appreciate your mentioning one of my posts.

   I think it's was valuable for you (and Observing Iran) to have pulled together this list--though, alas, it's hardly a "full list".

   However, I did want to enter one small quibble.  I'm not sure Ray Tayekh really quite belongs in that list.  All the other individuals and organizations listed there have combined blatant and persistent apologetics for the Iranian regime with efforts to dismiss or smear the democratic opposition.  Now, it's true that Tayekh has often been the kind of foreign-policy pseudo-"realist" who has, at the very least, bent over backward to be sympathetic to the perspective of the Khamenei/IRCG/Ahmadinejad regime.  But even at his worst, he was never in the same class as, say, the appalling duo of Flynt Leverett & Hilary Mann Leverett.  More to the point, the fraudulent election in June 2009 and the Green Wave of opposition it provoked have had a genuine effect on his thinking, and everything he's written about Iran since then has had a new tone (e.g., see here & here).  Unlike the Leveretts, he has been unmistakably sympathetic, not hostile, to the democratic opposition, and he's been increasingly critical of the regime.  One still might not find his position entirely satisfactory, but I don't think it's appropriate any longer to include him in a list of that sort.

  But with that one caveat ... good work!

I deleted Tayekh from my list, and got Jeff's permission to post this here. He added:

I posted a similar message in the "comments" thread at Observing Iran, and got a polite but firm disagreement from Arash in return.  Arash's feeling was that Tayekh's previous work put him beyond the pale.

Jeff

Ray Takeyh's book Hidden Iran is propaganda of the highest order, describing Khatami of all people as a "liberal". He remains on the list. You are right however that he is much better than the likes of Galloway and Everett but he is an apologist nonetheless.

Arash

I can sympathize ... but, for reasons I explained, I don't entirely agree.  And I also think that this is a situation where the good guys (i.e., us) have to be extra-careful and extra-scrupulous, not just for its own sake but also to avoid giving unnecessary ammunition to the bad guys.

Yours for reality-based discourse.