A well-respected research group posted a short article on its website about the location of a second launchpad for Iran’s space program. That’s not big news—but it can be made to sound like scary news in the New York Times.
“Launching Site in Iran Raises Missile Worries” was the headline over a piece by Rick Gladstone (8/9/13), which had this curious lead:
Iran has built a previously undisclosed launching site and space center near the northeastern city of Shahrud that could theoretically be used for testing ballistic missiles, according to satellite imagery reported on Thursday by IHS Jane’s, an authoritative weapons research publication based in London.
The article elaborates on that theory:
The Jane’s report was likely to be viewed with concern by Western officials and Israel. They have expressed suspicions that Iran’s ballistic missile development is part of what they view as the country’s ambition to build nuclear weapons that can be mounted on missile warheads. Iran has denied such ambitions.
The Times piece added that the new site “might be interpreted by some analysts as evidence that the Iranian military wants multiple locations capable of firing ballistic missiles.”
But if you go and read the Jane’s report, you might wonder what exactly is going on here. The report clearly puts almost no stock in the idea that this facility has anything to with a desire to launch missiles armed with nuclear warheads—that would make sense only to “those who believe Iran’s rulers are messianic fanatics who are intent on destroying Israel as soon as possible with no regard for the consequences.”
In the second-to-last graph, the Times tells readers what the Jane’s report actually says:
More likely, the report said, is that the multiple launching sites “reflect the scale of Iran’s ambitious space program.”
That’s the kind of thing you’d want to state very clearly in the lead—unless that’s not the conclusion you want readers to reach.
This is true briliant information…We are seeking the trough…This publication is an element for it!
So many thanks
This NYT article is a manipulation of news by a supposedly independent, trustworthy newspaper. Whoever Mr. Gladstone is, U.S. mainstream media appear to be vying with each other to become the voice of Washington, reflecting all its unfounded suspicions, biases and ability to dish out misinformation.
Irans government is quite literally- a group of mad hatters.Any technological advance that can be militarized is a thing one should worry about.
@Peter: So what if Iran has nuclear weapons and tests its missiles? Doesn’t the US? Why does the so-called left (I mean you Peter) always apologize for Iran? After the (illegal) invasion of Iraq by the US, it became clear to (little) countries at the verge of nuclear weapons development (i.e. N. Korea and Iran) that the only way to deter the Big Bully is to “have” nuclear weapons. The government of Iran would be stupid not to be developing nuclear weapons. And it is their international right. So stop playing into the bullies’ hand.
As for the US media, the double standard of taking ownership and test of nuclear weapons by US and Israel for granted but considering Iran and N. Korea’s (defensive) reciprocation as abominable is downright chauvinistic.
@Procivic: the mainstream media in this case is not the voice of the US government rather the voice of the government of Israel and all rabid Zionists in the US who tacitly support its right-wing agenda.
@michael: Nuclear weapons in any hands is a thing one should worry about. But your double standard and tone of voice towards Iran reeks of xenophobia and the classic white-man dehumanization of the other in order to dominate it. On this anniversary of the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, may I remind you that it is the mad hatters from the US who have ever used this demonic weapon in history and the mad hatters from your country that are the biggest proliferators of it in the world?
I forgot to say that declassified documents have revealed that the bomging of Hiroshima and Nagasaki were completely unnecessary. The did it for one reason. Because they simply could. Now who is mad?
That’s the kind of thing you’d want to state very clearly in the lead–unless that’s not the conclusion you want readers to reach. – Peter
Or it’s the kind of thing you don’t want as headlines because then people won’t bother to read it (they believe). It’s not really about selling to the public on the Iraq Government, it’s really all about selling the newspaper. This Randolf Hearst at his best yellow rag journalism. It keeps the mono-winged sheeple parrots people in terror. To wit: “Irans government is quite literally- a group of mad hatters.Any technological advance that can be militarized is a thing one should worry about.”
See the Sheeple parrots are bleating in terror already.
Free spirit….I know you cant put the Jeanie back in the bottle.But proliferation at this point to anyone anywhere is madness.And that goes especially for bat shit crazy leadership like that we see in Iran.And that has nothing to do with xenophobia.It is simply looking at the rhetoric coming from Iran and realizing you dont want them so armed.Anymore than you would of wanted OBL to have a nuke.And yes I do liken them one to the other.And no Israel is of course not in that rubber room.As for did we NEED to use the bomb in Japan.No we did not.My father was a dive bomber pilot since before midway in the Pacific.Since day one of the war.Off the Yorktown.He of course felt differently.We could of continued carpet bombing,killing 100 thousand in one night and no Japan would not of surrendered.We could of invaded at one end and moved to the other end fighting a kamikazi population .And if need be killing every one of them.My father had no illusions after Iwo jima and Okinawa.Woman whole- sale tossing their babies from the cliffs.We would of won make no doubt about it .Millions and millions of Japanese would of died and hundreds of thousands if not a million Americans.American left would of come home the exterminators of a race.My father among them.All that said I can not stand for the bomb and the destruction let loose upon them and the world.It is just too awful.We used the bomb to end a war.And the horror lives with us to this day.I ask people like Padre to please find the Farsi to English translations of their newspapers.Read it with your morning coffee.It is wholly ignored by the western press.When you hear what is released by their leadership daily tell me then……Do you want these crazy as a shit house rat to have the bomb?Read their own words God damn you.Read Mein Kampf.Sometimes these bastards mean what they say.Read the words of OBL before 911.Its all there.Read what a lot of people said as they ‘cut a lot of slack” to OBL and his followers.(Almost always on the left)As they tried to tamp down the growing alarm at that rhetoric.And of course Freespirit there is always some moron in the crowd who says ‘but they need it to stop the US from invading them’.yeah im wondering if it keeps Canadians up at night having the big bad wolf right next door.And not one gun on the boarder between us.What you mean is …if North Korea launches a surprise attack on the south to conquer them ,that their having a nuke may deter us from honoring our agreements and retaliating.or entering the fray.Or if Iran or some terrorist entity launches a surprise thermo nuclear attack on Israel that we may not return that fire if nukes are aimed at us?Well with Obama you would probably be right.Your playing with dangerous stakes sir.Id rather not up the ante.
Free spirit I have a group of friends who grew up in Iran.Most are Doctors.All agree the government there is bat shit crazy.The people it has been reported hate the mullahs.,and their leadership.So it seems they also agree.I do not have to read Farsi to get the translation every day of their papers.Don’t dare to compare those animals in that government to the worst we have ever produced.Do you not realize we have the ability to send our leaders packing?How quick will that happen to these mad men sitting like storm crows over all -with their insane religious madness.Your moral relativism is really strange.Obama and ah ma needs a job.Rev Jesse jackson and the Ayatollah.Our supreme court and their court of religious sanctions.Our I-95 with its billboards for Hooters…their billboards on the main thoroughfares in Tehran screaming against the jews.Obama talking about world affairs in the washington post and Irans leaders constant threats(check this weeks newspapers)in their press.Yeah not a hill of a beans difference there.Well maybe it is because there are no gays in Iran.
I kind of do enjoy reading how you compare us(unfavorably) to damn near any place on earth.Could you give me your input on that hateful place know as Texas.Compare it to oh I don’t know….Auschwitz lets say.Or how about compare Rush Limbaugh to Heinrich Himmler.Or how about Hilary To Stalin?Im sure you can twist it and dig up things to make these Americans look like the real bad guys.I know I know…..Mr Rogers to the Cambodian leader who murdered 3 million.Damn that Mr Rogers
@ Free Spirit, you have to realize that your talking to a True Believer. If the Fux Snoose empire told him that Road apples were really chocolate and full vitamins, he would be declaring that they are “mighty delicious and eats at least a dozen a day”. If they told him the sun shone at night, and that daylight was really blacklight, he would wear sunglasses at night, and carry an electric torch during the day, claiming the need to see.
They have told him that everyone in Iran is crazy, that the people there kill and eat babies for breakfast, and they all walk on their heads so there is no way he could possible see Iranians as anything but ‘Dangerous’. In essence your talking to walking brick wall. If you need to know what he is going to say, simply go over the Fux Snooze empire and repeat verbatim the lies they tell.
You might as expect bricks to get up and walk, before he will see any truth. His government (the one he thinks is in Washington) is perfect and infallible and the rest of the world is just out to get us because they hate our freedoms.
As for Limburger and Himmler, Limburger himself has constantly and consistently used Himmler and Goering as his model to live up to. Sadly the real difference is Himmler actually had some morals and believed he was doing good. Limburger will sell his own mother out if he thought he would a dimes profit on the deal. The only god he worships is the ‘Green back master’ and if mean selling the human race down the river, he will do it with out hesitation, as long as he thinks he won’t suffer.
@FreeSpirit:
Many have commented here on the phenomenon that is the strange case of “michael e”. I’d say yours is among the most intriguing. I have read your comment many times and I have to say it has stopped me in my tracks. I tend to agree with the assessments of those who have tried to reason with “michael e”, only to give up in frustration. Sometime his writings, a perverse hysteric’s mash-up of james joyce and haiku, become nothing more than a vast, grey sea of nearly senseless text, almost unreadable due to their length and breathlessness. But you have offered an insight that bears serious understanding. Better than many of us, you may have diagnosed “michael e”‘s condition. He “he manages to hang on to his denial by creating opposition with us undesirables”. Indeed. Why, if the question be raised, does he waste what appears to be his considerable energy here where it will make no difference? What does coming to this tiny “ghetto of truth” (I love that phrase!) offer him that he comes here to tangle with the post or with the comments? His anger and dislike are palpable — yet he returns for more of the very thing that stokes them. Why?
I really think you are on to something.
Gentlemen I seldom watch Fox.If what i say mirrors their talking points well good for them.Padre did you honestly say Himmler had morals?You know little of the history of his place in the third reich.I wont waste my time.As far as Rush…you know nothing of his family or his charity(something your president has an interesting mix of on the one hand, and nothing of on the other).So again you simply don’t know what your talking about.You on this sight believed Harry Reid when he said Obama care was not designed to force single payer.Today when he admitted that was the goal all along you dont blink an eye.Those of us who are tea party did blink.In disbelief,And that is the difference between us.Donald says my anger and dislike are palpable.Wrong as wrong could be.I dislike none of you.I do not “dislike obama’I disagree with him.Im sure he is a nice man.Id love to sit down to dinner with him.Zero hatred.How about you lot with Bush?Ah….again you see a difference.Your goal is to form a massive government that will tell us…nay force us ,all to live as You see fit.My goal is the exact opposite.I notice on this sight a gaggle of poor lemmings following one another over the cliff.I am simply here to step out of that line to say….some feel differently.And to you that is the clarion call to war.FEEL DIFFERENTLY?????How dare we?And it does amaze me how much of the Kool aid you all drink.Here is a quote….”.Obama care will cost twice ,to three times that promised by the president ,and premiums will skyrocket by the time this is implemented”Do you remember the hatred and insult I received for that statement?Far worse than what i received here today.So we are making headway.Having one person who is not towing the line in your little fraternity is an opportunity for growth for you lot.Especially when everything you believed about the man you voted for has been turned on its head.Just as “we” told you it would.Donal ,padre and freespirit….do you carry a pocket constitution?I recommend it.You need not agree with the heritage foundation to get one free.Just call up.They will send it to you free no questions asked.Use the system.With my blessings this time.I have one.Read it often.
Oh freespirit you seemed to imply that I did not truly believe in conservatism,because i saw deep down inside the Truth of liberalism.Wow….I am not articulating how I feel at all if that is how you see it.Look I grew up in a political family.Some on the left, and some on the right.Many known to you Im sure.I have learned that after 30 plus years of being involved and participating in the process that at this time in our history that the progressive liberal takeover of the left has erased any brain cells that were once upon a time firing on that side of the isle.Compromised is a word I would use.Far more so than the Republicans.In my eyes the Tea party is far less “compromised” by the Washington swamp.That is where /and why, I now reside there.Funny but you will notice I often step out of the liberally framed discourse of FAIR, to say what I believe.That I believe in conservative valuesYou lot….almost never.Why?Because you are embarrassed to say.Tim at least admitted he is a socialist.So step up to the plate freespirit.Padre.Donald.What political belief do you espouse?
Well Free spirit I except what you said on Obama except….he has no friends in any corporation.Not the hippy chick that incorporates her T shirt business.Not the corporation that make candy out of all things bacon.And not Wall mart.In his eyes hey exist so he may tax .No friendship in that.As far as your beliefs they are fine I suppose.Secular humanism.But in this world their are bad ass folks out there like the ones that flew those planes into the Twin Towers.They love people who wont take sides.Lambs to the slaughter.Nothing personal but I would not have you manning the Castle walls.Nothing wrong with taking sides.Especially when one is right.We have become this “thing” where everything is shades of grey.Nothing can be judged.Incapacitated is the word I would use.Nothing like the rugged individualism and certainty- that built this country.i call it lib speak.Dont be afraid to choose a side and work hard for it.You have that right so precious among people the world over.The right to choose- .The right of freedom.Dont just differ that right to someone else
@Donald Pruden: I’m sorry about your family’s predicament and am very glad Obamacare is working for your daughter. Obama has been such a let down in every way that the little bit of crumbs he has given us (with our own tax dollars) with Obamacare, feels like such a regally benevolent act!
Well Free spirit and Donald….First as much as you think I don’t know you,often times when you speak of me ,I actually wonder who it is you are speaking off.Cant be me.Its like you are speaking about a four foot tall pygmy living in the jungles who works in a chocolate factory .Then you slap my name on it and I say,-are they talking about me?No relevance at all to my life ,beliefs,or experience.For instance Freespirit…I served in the toughest outfit in this countries armed forces.You know them well by their service to this country.See what being a lifeguard in high school gets you?Surprise you?So i put in my time.My ass on the line.As far as you being in anti war protests and fighting Fox news…..Yeah those girls with the hots legs on those shows look like what i faced on land and sea.Well a little.Joking aside I read you.America should not go to war because there is always another way.Or as the Amish say…”take a gun into your hand, you take a gun into your heart”Well sadly Ive seen the other side.You have not and in a strange way im glad for that.Hard to explain.Something good about seeing the animals up close and personal , then to come home to people asking for peace.Damn straight.Another life.As far as being able to learn nothing from me……A person marks themselves a fool for such words.Great old saying .”Every man is my superior,in that i may learn from him”Emerson I think.We all must learn from each other.Fox told you that Benghazi’s truth was being hidden.Today we find out they were right.They reported on the IRS ,the AP scandal and all the rest while the drive by press slept.Again they were right.They reported the true cost projections of Obama care………Correctly.Marking this president and his people as liars on a massive scale.What to do about a news service that wont tow the line?How about we mark them as Nazis and anti woman,religious fanatics blah blah blah blah blah.Donald You are in my prayers for your daughter.I am glad of any situation that would help her and you, in your time of need.But from a physicians point of view I must tell you that Obama care is exactly the disaster predicted all along.Just look around you man.At the cost.It might as well be a thousand times the cost he promised,for all the chance we have of affording it.This will absolutely bankrupt the country.The healthcare system will collapse en masse.We in the tea party are ringing the clarion bell .Telling you there is a fox in the hen house.A murderer among your children.See we hire a president(Domestically) to be a manager of the peoples trust.Instead we have an ACORN Lawyer.A man that sees every action through the eyes and prism of social justice.And to fund this ,he redistributes the wealth.So you find my words ridiculous.Well I find you incorrect.Always always wrong.On almost every subject.It is maddening.But lets leave it at obamacare.You promised me it would cost no more that 700 billion.That premiums would go down.That competition would go up and people could pick what they like.I call you damn liars.Let all out arguments rest on this.The one that is right moves on.The one that is wrong steps out!
@michael e: I stand corrected! So you did collaborate with the imperialist bully Armed Forces of the US. You didn’t say in what capacity but you were probably a cook – but a good cook like Steven Seagal! Please… Take the red pill. I know if you jump the fence you will think that your “service” (to whom?) will have been a waste. But you certainly qualify for absolution. You were young and more ignorant back then. Even the great Howard Zinn killed hundreds if not thousands of people when he was a bombardier. If he can turn around, so can you.
I am getting bored with this thread. I will let you have the last word…
Well sometimes we go into things young and foolish.Full of vim and vigor.Against the wishes of those who know better.Wanting to test ourselves to the nth degree.Id wager that fills the coffers of most Armed forces.You learn…and hopefully live.And come away a pacifist if you have half a brain.That I am.Though I know the realities.Something you do not.Absolution????Between me and my God.Absolution from you?I hope your kidding.Imperialist USA???So this country holds all the bad guys huh?You just don’t know what you are talking about.Look I attended the finest schools in the country in my second life.I know life from an easy chair too.Pontificating in academic delight how it is so easy to straighten out everything that took a crooked turn.Amateur hour is what I call it.And that is why your president is an Amateur.I don’t know if I could leave my easy chair at this point to go back to that hard dose of reality.We all do get lazy.Older.Slower.And smarter.I do know there is a big difference between that, and sleeping in the rain at four in the morning,gun by your side wet and cold.It gives one perspective.You may still have one or two things to learn my friend.
Oh …………No I never learned to cook there.And I never saw the Steven Segal movie you pointed to.Though I learned after, and am today quite good I think.If life be honest though it is high time that the left look at Obamas time in office- and prepare yourselves a huge pot of crow.You need add nothing.Spicy enough