While I am glad for Roxana Saberi and her parents that she was released from Iranian prison, Glen Greenwald hits the nail on the wall:
Right now — as the American press corps celebrates itself for demanding Saberi’s release in Iran — the U.S. continues to imprison Ibrahim Jassam, a freelance photographer for Reuters, even though an Iraqi court last December — more than five months ago — found that there was no evidence to justify his detention and ordered him released. The U.S. — over the objections of the CPJ, Reporters Without Borders and Reuters — refused to recognize the validity of that Iraqi court order and announced it would continue to keep him imprisoned.
One finds only a tiny fraction of news coverage in the U.S. regarding the treatment of al-Haj, Hussein, Jassam and these other imprisoned journalists as has been devoted to Saberi. It ought to be exactly the reverse: the American media should be far more interested in, and opposed to, infringements of press freedoms by the U.S. Government than by governments of other countries. Yet the former merits hardly a peep, while the latter provokes all sorts of smug and self-righteous protests from American journalists who suddenly discover their brave commitment to press freedoms when all that requires is pointing to a demonized, hated foreign government and complaining.
This is not an isolated phenomenon. Pay careful attention to coverage in the US press of what’s going on in the rest of the world. Almost invariably it seems, US media enjoys pointing out faults in other countries while ignoring the exact same issues here at home – which make Jesus’ comment about mote’s and beams seem quite apt.
To take one example I notice all the time: The NY Times seems to have an obsession with Hugo Chavez. Yes, the man can be quite annoying and is a typical demagogue in many ways. But the fact is, that while many revile him, the vast majority of his country strongly supports him He has won free and fair elections over and over again by margins wider than any US President in recent memory, this despite recall attempts and even a coup (supported by that great “promoter of democracy” George W. Bush) by his opposition. And yet it seems a week doesn’t pass without an article in the Times contending that Chavez’ policy of redistributing oil wealth to his countrymen and neighbors (instead of shipping it off to US oil companies) is an obscene act which is not about helping people but a way to “buy off” those Venezuelan dupes. In the end, it will surely bring about the collapse of Venezuela, or so at least contends the NY Times (and the rest of the US media) for the past ten years.
Worst of all, these articles (or better named propaganda pieces) are presented as “news analysis” and not as editorials or opinions. It would be nice if the Times would devote the same amount of energy into the kind of investigative journalism into the practices of the US government as it once did, instead of becoming a mouthpiece for that government, as it did in the run up to the Iraq war.
Tags: Hypocrisy, Propaganda