{"id":403,"date":"2006-09-05T17:01:33","date_gmt":"2006-09-05T17:01:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/morgue.isprettyawesome.com\/?p=403"},"modified":"2006-09-05T17:01:33","modified_gmt":"2006-09-05T17:01:33","slug":"mediawatch-the-nuclear-fanatic","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/morgue.isprettyawesome.com\/?p=403","title":{"rendered":"[mediawatch] The Nuclear Fanatic"},"content":{"rendered":"

A feature article appeared in the Sunday Times (of London) back on August 20. It was syndicated out to NZ’s Dominion Post, appearing on August 22, and I’ve hung on to it because I wanted to write about it. It is entitled “The Nuclear Fanatic”. You can find the online version here<\/a>. No byline was given in the NZ reprint but it is attributed in the original to Sarah Baxter.
\nThis article continues the theme of demonising Iran. This is something that has been going on for a long time, and I’ve written about it before. The propaganda line perpetuated by this article is that
\nIran isn’t just an enemy state (itself a claim worthy of investigation) that may be on the road to nuclear capability, but that it is a clear and present danger to the world’s peace and security due to the irrational villainy of its leaders.
\nThis kind of propaganda stands in the way of clear understanding; it most certainly stands in the way of any potential for peace.
\nIt’s worth picking bits of it apart. You can see how the system operates – the premises underlying this piece aren’t examined, they’re taken as read, and these premises are what is truly communicated in the piece.
\nThe article opens with:<\/p>\n

If some Iran-watchers in America are to be believed, we could be 48 hours away from the day of judgment.
\nMahmoud Ahmadinejad, Iran\ufffds president, has promised to deliver on Tuesday his response to international demands that Iran stop enriching uranium for nuclear use.
\nBy the Islamic calendar, Tuesday is also a holy date: the night when Muhammad rose to heaven from the al-Aqsa mosque in Jerusalem on a \ufffdburaq\ufffd, a fabulous winged beast with the body of a horse and the face of a woman, and reappeared in Mecca. Will Ahmadinejad seize the moment to unveil the possession of some new fissile material or weapons system \ufffd perhaps a nuclear-tipped one?
\nBernard Lewis, the West\ufffds foremost scholar of Islam, has even warned that on such a symbolic date it would be wise to bear in mind the possibility of a \ufffdcataclysmic\ufffd event such as a strike on Israel. <\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Why open with this? Well, obviously, it’s big and dramatic and exciting and gets you reading.
\nUnfortunately it’s also nonsense built on horrific prejudices. Nuclear armageddon did not descend on the Middle East on Tuesday 22 August. A bunch of premises of this article are revealed by this opening, however:<\/p>\n