“Manufacturing consent, sanitising atrocities and platforming war criminals”

I came across this statement from an independent media source this week

“The mainstream media is doing what it always does in wartime: manufacturing consent, sanitizing atrocities and platforming war criminals”

Manufacturing consent

It came to mind immediately when I read the “Times” newspaper obituary for Ayatollah Ali Khamenei which was reprinted in the Christchurch Press newspaper on the weekend.

Ayatollah Ali Khamenei was murdered by the US/Israel in the initial strikes of their illegal bombing and killing campaign in Iran – an assault that rips up international law and trashes the United Nations Charter.

The obituary was a straight piece of western propaganda which did nothing to hide its blatant disinformation (deliberate misinformation). It may as well have come straight from an Israeli propaganda unit – it may well have for all I know – with its demonisation of the Iranian leadership.

The Times claimed Ayatollah Ali Khamenei had “…approved the development of a clandestine nuclear weapons programme that could, if ever completed, threaten Israel’s very existence, destabilise the Middle East and imperil global oil supplies”.

This is an obvious lie. Israel’s Prime Minister – and well-known war criminal – Benjamin Netanyahu has been saying for 30 years that Iran is just a few weeks or months away from producing a nuclear weapon. The fact is that all credible analysts, including inside US intelligence, agree Iran never decided to pursue nuclear weapons and the United Nations nuclear watchdog, the IAEA (International Atomic Energy Agency) has never detected such a programme. In fact Ayatollah Ali Khamenei declared nuclear weapons to be “religiously forbidden under Islamic law”.

The rest of the obituary is riddled with similar untruths and distortions in a ham-fisted justification of US/Israel’s assault on Iran. If the Times has set out to undermine confidence in western media reporting on West Asia (The Middle East) this would be an excellent example.

Platforming war criminals

How much western media time and space has been given to Trump and Netanyahu in the past 10 days to spread lies and disinformation direct to western audiences? And how much time has been given to the Iranian leadership, UN officials or international experts to debunk the US/Israeli justifications for war?

Meanwhile the media have platformed Iranians New Zealanders who oppose the Iranian leadership and support the appointment of the former Shah’s son Reza Pahlavi, to lead the country. The previous Shah’s rule was a brutal dictatorship where tens of thousands were murdered or imprisoned by the Shah’s secret police, the Savak. The Shah’s dictatorship was backed by the US and western interests till its overthrow in 1979.

The new proposed Shah is no different from his father, posing with Netanyahu and celebrating the bombing and killing in Iran.

So why has our mainstream media give so much attention to Iranians here who celebrate death and destruction in Iran alongside people waving the Israeli flag – a symbol of genocide and apartheid – and inviting Destiny Church to join them. A real horror show!

And when it comes to women’s rights why is the western media so happy to denounce restrictions on clothing for women in Iran but ignore Israel’s denial of rights to Palestinian women in Gaza whom Amnesty International this week says face the erosion of health and safety in Gaza in a ‘deliberate act of war targeting women and girls’.

Sanitising atrocities

And why has the western media all but ignored the US/Israeli missile attack on the girls school in Iran killing at least 165 children? Imagine if this were an attack on a school in Israel or the US? Imagine the apoplectic outrage! Imagine the rush to sanctions and war?

This attack and murder of Iranian girls is sidelined for the same reason Israel’s genocide in Gaza killing tens of thousands of women and children is being downplayed.

Sanitising atrocities by the US or Israel and finding excuses, justifications or explanations for them is in the western media’s DNA.

The Press and western media take all their stories from western sources such as news agencies Reuters and Associated Press and western newspapers such as the Times and Daily Telegraph. They would never dream of including stories from Al Jazeera or any Palestinian news sources.

I would once have lamented the loss of mainstream media reporting on issues but it’s no longer possible to pretend it is in any way a force for good.