Barbara Starr, CNN's Pentagon reporter (more accurately known as: the Pentagon's reporter at CNN), has an exciting exclusive today. Exclusively relying upon "three senior officials" in the Obama administration (all anonymous, needless to say), she claims that "two Iranian Su-25 fighter jets fired on an unarmed U.S. Air Force Predator drone in the Persian Gulf last week," while "the drone was in international airspace east of Kuwait... engaged in routine maritime surveillance." The drone was not hit, but, says CNN, "the incident raises fresh concerns within the Obama administration about Iranian military aggression in crucial (Persian) Gulf oil shipping lanes."
First things
first: let us pause for a moment to extend our thoughts and prayers to this U.S.
drone. Although it was not physically injured, being shot at by the Iranians -
while it was doing nothing other than peacefully minding its own business - must
have been a very traumatic experience. I think I speak on behalf of everyone,
regardless of political views, when I say that we all wish this brave hero a
speedy recovery and hope it is back in full health soon, protecting our
freedom.
The CNN report
on this incident is revealing indeed. Every paragraph - literally - contains
nothing but mindless summaries of the claims of U.S. government officials. There
is not an iota of skepticism about any of the assertions, including how this
incident happened, what the drone was doing at the time, or where it took place.
It is pure U.S. government press release - literally; I defy anyone to identify
any differences if the U.S. government had issued its own press release directly
rather than issuing it masquerading as a leaked CNN report.
Most notably,
CNN does not even bother with the pretense of trying to include the claims of
the Iranian government about what happened. There is no indication that the
self-described news outlet even made an effort to contact Tehran to obtain their
rendition of these events or even confirmation that it occurred. It simply
regurgitates the accusations of anonymous U.S. officials that Iran, with no
provocation, out of the blue decided to shoot at a U.S. drone in international
airspace. (Although CNN does not mention it,
last December Iran shot down a U.S. drone which, it claims (and the U.S. does
not deny) was in Iranian air space).
That CNN's prime
mission is to serve the U.S. government is hardly news. But given the magnitude
of these kinds of accusations - their obvious ability, if not intent, to bolster
animosity on the part of the U.S. public toward Iran and heighten tensions
between the two nations - shouldn't CNN at least pretend to be a bit more
skeptical and even-handed about how it is reporting these claims? Anonymous Bush
officials claim Saddam is reconstituting his nuclear program; anonymous Obama
officials claim Iran illegally shot at a U.S. drone for no reason.
But nothing can top this sentence from CNN, intended to explain the significance of this alleged event: "Iran has, at times, been confrontational in the region." Yes, indeed they have - in stark contrast to the peaceful United States, which never is. Or, as Jeremy Scahill today, anticipating how Starr might present her report on-air on CNN later today: "Iran, which has launched airstrikes in Pakistan, Yemen, Somalia and [holding earpiece] -- wait, what's that, Wolf? Oh, right. The U.S., which has..." Scahill was being a bit generous to Wolf Blitzer there, who would be far more likely to add; "yes, that's right, Barbara: and we should also remind our viewers how Iran, just a few short years ago, attacked its neighbor Iraq, destroyed the country, and then occupied it for almost a decade, showing how aggressive the ... are willing to be in this region."
In case any of
you thought the U.S. media would change its future behavior in light of the
debacle during the run-up to the Iraq War - and, really, were any of you
thinking they would? - this is your answer. The pre-Iraq-War behavior wasn't an
abandonment of their purpose but the supreme
affirmation of it: to drape the claims of the U.S. government with independent
credibility, dutifully serve its interests, and contrive an appearance of a free
press. This is our adversarial, watchdog media in action.
This all reminds
me of a debate I did a couple years ago on MSNBC with Arianna Huffington and the
Washington Post's Jonathan Capehart over Iran and whether it should be viewed as
an aggressor and enemy of the U.S. For most of the debate, MSNBC kept
showing scary video footage of a test of a mid-range missile
which Iran had just conducted, and then Capehart picked up on that to tell me,
in essence: how can you say Iran isn't aggressive when they're testing these
missiles? Yes, because, clearly, countries of peace (such
as the U.S. and Israel) would never do something as belligerent as testing
missiles, much like no real Country of Peace would ever want to acquire a
nuclear weapon.
AN/SM
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