Friday, June 5, 2009

Day 16 (5/10) An alternate view

Today was a mostly quiet day at home with mom and dad. It was warm out during the day, so we mostly stayed inside. In the afternoon, when everybody else was taking a nap, I searched the airwaves with my IPod to see what I could find. I located some classical Persian music stations, and a Persian dance station. Most Persian dance music, as well as videos, are recorded in Los Angeles and then shipped to Iran, as there is a huge Iranian population in S. California. But then I located the most interesting station of all – the news, in English. Yet it wasn’t BBC or Voice of America (both of which are extremely popular on television through satellite dishes); rather, this was obviously Iranian government-controlled media in English. I always enjoy listening to the government sponsored news in Iran on television or radio. It is like taking the U.S. media's reports on the Middle East, with all their biases and and slant, and turning them on their head. For example, while our media has often ignored the role the U.S. played in Afghanistan many years ago, which eventually led to the creation of the Taliban, Iranian media will openly refer to the Taliban as the “U.S.-created Taliban”. Rather than referring to “civilians killed in Afghanistan”, the Iranian media discusses the “massacre of women and children”. Another example was when the station talked about Nancy Pelosi’s visit to Iraq, describing it as secret, due to “fear of dear life” given the “hatred of Iraqis for U.S. occupiers”. As harsh as it sometimes sounds to my American ears, I have to admit there’s occasionally some truth in how they describe some events. They certainly don't sugar coat it at all. At the same time, some of it is also exaggerated to make the U.S. look as bad as possible.

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