Ayatollah News: PRESSTV, the Iranian Propaganda Machine

The First Amendment to the Constitution of the United States of America protects the freedom of the press. While the conservative voices of our country may feel slighted in the present liberal news industry, they can avail themselves of new media technologies to spread ideas and values and promulgate a counter-narrative to the trite leftist siren of the mainstream media.

While in our country one might be critical of the media for offering only one perspective on political stories, conservatives can console themselves by taking heart in the protection afforded by our Constitution, which continues to ensure their ability to publish and disseminate accounts that differ from the stories they watch on CBS. 

By contrast, in the theocracy of Iran, there is no constitutionally mandated “freedom of press.” Iran’s lack of respect for that value is reflected in the blighted state of its media, which is little more than the propaganda arm of the government. According to Freedom House, the leading voice on human rights and universal values throughout the world, in Iran: 

The government directly controls all television and radio broadcasting… The authorities frequently issue ad hoc orders banning media coverage of specific topics and events, including the economic impact of international sanctions, the fate of opposition leaders, and criticism of the country’s nuclear policy.

The Iranian regime, pursuing a vision of global dominance, has taken media propaganda to the next level. On July 2, 2007, they launched PRESSTV, which has turned into an internationally recognized media outlet with 24 hour English-language programming. Cloaked with a veneer of legitimacy and the purported transparency of a major news network, PRESS TV is in reality an appendage of the Iranian government, created to further embitter its populace against the West. 

The Obama administration claims to have imposed the tightest sanctions in history on the current Iranian regime. PRESSTV, however, continues its disinformation campaign fail and refuses to acknowledge any of the nation’s own transgressions or the international climate in which Iran is alternatively disparaged and feared: militarily, as a threat to global safety; and culturally, as having failed to adopt modern notions of civil rights.

PressTV.com: Inside the Administration of Disinformation

Press TV funnels all of its editorial genres, titled “viewpoints”, into 21 different categories:

• 9/11
• Crimes Against Humanity
• Disinformation
• Double Standards 
• Economy 
• Human Rights 
• IAEA 
• Imperialism 
• Intelligence 
• Islamophobia 
• Media 
• Military and War 
• NATO 
• Politics 
• Racism 
• Society 
• Terrorism 
• UN 
• War Crimes 
• WMDs 
• Zionism

These categories represent the issues that the Iranian Regime ostensibly considers to be of the highest importance in world affairs. Common fixtures on the PRESSTV homepage include articles about 9/11 conspiracies, web lectures condemning the the American government’s crimes against humanity, and postings reflecting anti-Semitic conspiracies and ideologies.

Pavlov’s Dogs: The Talking Heads at PRESSTV

• Lauren Booth: British reporter and host of The Diaspora. Booth is a pro-Palestinian activist. She gained prominence by being the former sister-in-law to British Prime Minister Tony Blair, also drawing attention via her public conversion from Judaism to Islam. Booth once stated that “For World Peace Israel Must Be Destroyed” and “Israel Your Days Are Numbered.”
• Derek Conway: Former British Conservative Party MP, and host of PRESSTV’s Epilogue, a book review program. He has given voice to myriad anti-Semites on his program.
• George Galloway: Current Respect MP in the British Parliament. If you are unaware of what the Respect party stands for, look to the party flag’s colors, Red (Communist/Socialist) and Green, (Environmentalist) for guidance. Galloway is the Host of PRESSTV’s Comment. He is virulently pro-Palestinian, and necessarily, also a vociferous anti-Israel advocate. His claim to fame: refusing to have an open, honest debate with an Israeli because… simply put, his opponent was an Israeli, and he doesn’t debate Israelis.
• Max Keiser: A pseudo-economist, Keiser is the host of PRESSTV’s On The Edge, which focuses on world financial matters; particularly addressing topics such as America and Israel’s shared responsibility for all the world’s financial problems. Keiser is an unapologetic 9/11 Truther. Mr. Keiser has argued that there is a “Financial Holocaust” being committed by Tel Aviv, a genocide he believes is being carried out under the direction of the Zionist Rothschild family, which control’s the world’s currency.
• Tariq Ramadan: Professor of contemporary Islamic studies at Oxford University, and host of PRESSTV’s Islam and Life, a program that focuses on the “challenges faced by its (Islam) followers especially in the West.” Ramadan is a close ally of the Muslim Brotherhood, and rejects and condemns anything and everything relating to the state of Israel, yet by his own accounts is an adamant defender of the Jewish people.
• Yvonne Ridley: British journalist, self-proclaimed “human rights activist”, and fanatic supporter of Galloway’s Respect Party. Ridley is host of PRESSTV’s The Agenda. During a lecture at Imperial College in 2006, Ridley stated “The Respect Party is a Zionist-free party… if there was any Zionism in the Respect Party they would be hunted down and kicked out. We have no time for Zionists.” She once exclaimed that government support “goes towards that disgusting little watchdog of America that is festering in the Middle East”. Ridley is a known financial (and of course idyllic) donor to Hamas, an internationally recognized terrorist organization that controls the Gaza Strip.
• Amina Taylor: Host of programs The Big Story and Remember Palestine. Taylor’s work focuses on “Islamophobes,” and those that misunderstand Muslims in the West.

GOOGLE IT

Google News, a popular news aggregator trusted by millions of Americans, uses PRESSTV as a legitimate source of information. Google News’ sources are carefully sorted through human employees rather than just an algorithm. Why Google uses PRESSTV as a source is a question that certainly necessitates an answer.

There’s Hope

Thanks to pressure placed by European governments and the tireless efforts from groups such as UANI (United Against Nuclear Iran), progress has been made towards limiting PRESSTV’s scope and reach. PRESSTV, predictably, blamed the “Zionist lobby” for this occurrence. 

Former British MP Lord Ahmed told PRESSTV that “it’s very unfortunate that the Zionist lobby does not like PRESSTV and many of the other outlets of Iran and that’s why, the pressure is so much that they need to be switched off.” Lord Ahmed was thrown out of the British parliament after reportedly constant remarks about a “worldwide Jewish conspiracy”.

As Andrew Breitbart precociously noted in Righteous Indignation, “The army of the emboldened and gleefully ill-informed is growing.” While this army is being cultivated daily by propaganda machines such as PRESSTV, it is incumbent upon Americans and other citizens of the free world to stand for the truth. As members of a free society with a free press, we cannot be afraid to expose PRESSTV for what it truly is, and treat it with the respect it deserves: none.