MSNBC‘s Rachel Maddow (JD Lasica)
This week: Pundits attack NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden. Rachel Maddow makes false claims about Iran and nuclear weapons. And the Washington Post‘s new “Sponsored Views” feature will let let corporations and organizations post “responses” to the paper’s op-ed pieces–for a price.
Unfortunitely Rachel is usually Right.
Maddow is positioning herself for office. Like the others on MSNBC’s nightly shows, her job is defend O’Bomber and honor the contract that forbids each of them to interview, inter alia, Noam Chomsky.
MSNBC’s main job is to keep its audience riveted to GOP silliness on the social issues, while playing identity group politics with gay, female, immigrant, and racial issues. They avoid systemic issues that would require its commentators to criticize Wall Street or the Pentagon. What would you expect of a media outfit still owned by GE and Comcast?
In view of FAIRs ongoing and incessant defense of Iran and its President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad I find it really underwhelming that they are willing to take Ahmadinejad’s word on nuclear weapons.
Does that mean that before WWII they would have taken Hitler’s word that he had no territorial ambitions in Europe … because he said that multiple times. Japan was talking to the US representatives right up to Pearl Harbor. Why is FAIR so insistent about trusting Ahmadinejad and pointing the finger back at the US?
Meanwhile Iran is busy burying and hardening bunkers for their nuclear facilities and posting on the Internet their missile tests.
And, why does Ahmadinejad feel that it is the responsibility of an Iranian leader to equip and support terrorists such as Hamas and Hezbollah while making belligerent statements about Israel such as “Zionism is a cancer and the cure for cancer is radiation”.
Why in Rick Steve’s travel program on Iran did he see everywhere in every mosque death to Israel banners?
Why does FAIR seem to be informative and carefully investigative on every subject but this one? Is FAIR funded by Middle Eastern or Islamic interests?
BRUX: Iran has attacked no one and is in full compliance with the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty. Both Panetta and Gates admitted that Iran has no nuclear weapons or nuclear weapons programs. Yet, we have already put economic sanctions and embargoes upon Iran, which when combined with the cyber-attack that O’Bomber admitted to having made upon their nuclear energy facilities, amount to the US’ informal declaration of war against Iran. Moreover, we have also, most likely, conspired with Israel to assassinate 5 or more of Iran’s top nuclear scientists and have surely aided the rebels who have engaged in armed insurrection against the government of Iran. Former Pennsylvania Governor Ed Rendel openly brags about his association with the fundamentalist MME, a group that was once on the State Department’s list of terrorist organizations. Also, O”Bomberr has admitted that cyber-attacks are acts of war.
The media is doing an awful job covering this story. The intelligence community is not protecting us from terrorists. They are the terrorists. They created Al Qaeda to begin with. Watch this video if you don’t believe me: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h8Lam9V_9tE Part of the reason why they created Al Qaeda was so that they had an excuse to take away all our rights.
Dear Rachel Maddow,
You have established a reputation for scrupulous accuracy and relatively liberal perspective on the political scene.
That is highly valuable against blatantly opposite views put forth by the dominant corporate media in America.
Moreover, you have considerable influence in thus speaking some measure of truth to power.
Consequently, your misleading remarks regarding Iran’s nuclear aims cause severe harm to public understanding and opinion of this.
Here is the alert about this by Fairness & Accuracy In Reporting (FAIR). —
The recent elections in Iran may change some things–but inaccurate media depictions of Iran might not change much at all.
After moderate presidential candidate Hasan Rowhani emerged victorious, USA Today (6/17/13) reported that he “is known for his negotiating skill over the country’s nuclear weapons program.”
That is incorrect; Rowhani has represented the country in discussions of its atomic energy program. There have been charges that Iran has a secret nuclear weapons program, but that is an allegation, not a fact (Extra!, 1/12); the consensus of U.S. intelligence agencies is that Iran is not trying to make a nuclear weapon (New York Times, 2/24/12).
In a recent interview (Asharq Al-Awsat, 6/12/13), Rowhani said that “Iran has an exclusively peaceful nuclear program…. Nuclear weapons have no role in Iran’s national security doctrine, and therefore Iran has nothing to conceal.”
But the notion that Iran has a weapons program is widely accepted in corporate media. MSNBC host Rachel Maddow (6/10/13) went farther in spreading misinformation:
The current president of Iran has had the job for the last eight years. Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, he’s known around the world for defending Iran’s pursuit of nuclear weapons.
Far from “defending Iran’s pursuit of nuclear weapons,” Ahmadinejad regularly did the opposite, insisting that Iran had no such program, as a simple Web search would reveal–see a CBS interview (9/24/12) from last year, helpfully titled “Iranian President Denies Iran Developing a Nuclear Weapon.” Or as Reuters (11/8/12) quoted him, “The Iranian nation is not seeking an atomic bomb, nor do they need to build an atomic bomb.”
Media commentary about Iran’s election results suggests there is an opening to change the state of relations between Iran and the United States. But U.S. media will make that more difficult if they cannot get these simple facts straight.
Your comment is appalling, and more befitting Fox News.
Please offer a public correction without delay.
Thank you.
Erik Roth
Minneapolis