When it comes to covering protests in other countries, it seems any vague picture of brown people protesting can stand in for those actually on the streets expressing their grievances. Since the outbreak of protests across Iran three weeks ago, several major outlets have used pictures of demonstrations in the United States, France, or United Kingdom—organized by a fringe, cult-like group, Mojahedin-e Khalq (MEK)—in place of images of the entirely unaffiliated protesters, 6,000 miles away, who are the topic of discussion.
Fox News, Scientific American, Vox, Salon, National Interest and Axios were among the outlets that used unidentified photos of protests not in Iran to illustrate stories about protests in Iran.
These are all images of rallies by the MEK (sometimes known as the People’s Mujahedin, or its benign-sounding front-group name, National Council of Resistance) being presented as protesters in Iran. Several other outlets used their images, but noted they were simply “solidarity” marches in the US or Europe. While this is technically accurate, it’s still wildly misleading, given that it’s safe to assume most people won’t know that the organizers of these rallies are part of a US- and Israeli-aligned fringe group, and not allies of the workers and young people taking to the streets in Iran.
The Washington Post front page (1/4/18) featured a photo of an MEK demonstration in Paris, identified only as “demonstrators…in solidarity with those marching in Iran against the government.” (image: Shervin Malekzadeh)
Casually throwing around MEK images to represent unrest in Iran is the worst combination of insulting and sloppy. It would be like a Chinese outlet, in 2012, using images of a Westboro Baptist Church protest in a story about Occupy Wall Street, because both opposed the US government. The exact ideology of those protesting in Iran isn’t 100 percent clear—they seem to represent a mix of groups and grievances—but MEK has virtually zero support in Iran itself, having been disowned by the Green Movement (the last major protest movement in Iran) in 2009, and is widely loathed for working with Israeli intelligence and fighting alongside the Iraqi army in Iran’s decade-long war against Saddam in the 1980s that killed a half-million Iranians. The MEK has carried out several bomb attacks in Iran, and was even officially listed by the US State Department as a foreign terrorist organization for 16 years, until it was removed by then-Secretary of State Hillary Clinton in 2012, after a years-long lobbying effort by pro-regime change forces within the US.
The only major media faction that even pretends the MEK has any legitimacy within Iran is the Murdoch group, which routinely runs MEK’s blatant disinformation (Fox News, 1/1/18) and pro-regime change op-eds (Wall Street Journal, 1/8/18). Even consistent regime change partisans, such as Bloomberg’s Eli Lake (1/2/18), warn against promoting MEK:
People’s Mujahedin leader Maryam Rajavi, or supporters of the Pahlavi dynasty that fell in 1979, should not be treated as leaders or spokesmen for this organic uprising. They seek to impose an agenda on a movement they did not create. Don’t let them do it.
No intellectually honest person takes MEK seriously as a viable alternative to the current government in Iran. The idea that it is an actual “Iranian opposition” is a Western media fiction. But the group’s rallies outside Iranian embassies provide great visual fodder for indifferent or dishonest editors in need of high-quality “Iran protest” images—without the mess of actually paying Iranian photographers, or dissecting the on-the-ground political reality in Iran.
h/t Holly Dagres
Ok…I’m not sure what the point of this article….how do you criticize an Islamofascist regime like the one in Iran?
Truth hurts right? You can’t fool yourself by sticking your head in the snow!
Certainly not by publishing false information about who is actually doing the protesting. That is, when the media bothered to publish anything at all. As if that weren’t bad enough, those who write about the protests are either full-out propaganda writers from the US intelligence community or so totally ignorant of Iran they should be reassigned to covering city utility authority meetings.
Reducing the protests to outrage against the government is simplistic at best and blatantly misleading at worst. The one major US mainstream article I read claimed they were in protest of corrupt banks rather than the real reason, which according to every article I’ve read from actual Middle East sources make it clear the original protests were about neoliberal austerity policies being applied to the economy by the current regime. The US media article cited only one source—an Iranian living in the US.
So, using photos of people other than actual Iranian protestors is part and parcel of the entire media narrative in the US, which appears to be that the facts are of less importance than the message.
Shiv-t As/if Christianity and Jews are saintly (Evil term is mild)? Facts are, Muslims want to be left alone.
Millions have been killed by Americans and allies
Remember the war in Iraq? The Vietnam war? The “domino theory” that Harvard graduates and George University, ‘China specialists’ peddled to the three TV networks ? They all helped started USA to war based on falsehood. America has been fed over and over. The regime changes Obama-Hillary accilerated created more chaos not peace in the Middle East and that chaos they intended to bring into the USA!! Thank heavens, Hillary did not win. Be wary if the policies of war and peace emanates from the secret meetings between the reigning administration and the intelligence agency without involvement of the people at large. We want to make sure that the Trump administration make policies that are rooted from the grassroots not from among each other in the political parties established dee state legislature . Our security is enhanced more if they cannot agree and that Trump carry on with his communicating directly to the people through the internet media.
The MKO cult has a leader (Maryam Rajavi Abrishamchi Azdanlou Ghajar_Koss) who was snatched from her husband (Abrishamchi) by Masoud Rajavi (who is dead now) to become Masoud Rajavi’s wife !. This is the mentality of the MKO cult where they can break up families and make sule for themselves. This cult is much much worse than the mollahs rulling in Iran. Despite the fact that MKO is despised by Iranians — most Iranians cosnider them stooges of foriegners — nevertheless MKO is trying to push itself as representative of Iranian oposition. MKO pays some of the US politicians to go to France and make speeches for them, thnking that this will give them credibility. Perhaps, they are unaware that Iranians are very suspecious of US Government due to the 1953 coup that brought the Shah in, etc. Also these Americans taking money from a cult (MKO) is how they are influence pedling in US congress and senate as Iranian oposition. Therefore MKO can only be supported by Iran;s enemies, such as Saudi Arabia, Israel, and the like.
And The Real FAKE NEWS AND AWARDS GOES TO…………….YOURS TRULY Washington Post who smear independent left and critical libertarian sites and their allies by it Fox and the fake left of Salon and Vox.