The current repression has made reporting in Iran difficult. In this case, The Times relied on an interview with a researcher for a nongovernment agency that no longer operates within Iran who said the photograph was evidence of a more visible police role in public crackdowns on what the authorities consider immoral behavior. The reporter then wrongly interpreted what the researcher said as applying to a crackdown on dress, and incorporated the erroneous interpretation into the body of the article, without giving any indication of the source for it.
[...]
...............
Ha!
If the pro-military intervention propaganda implications of this rush to judgment weren't so grave, it would be the funniest story of the week.
NYTimes (to NGO Wanker): Could you take a moment to interpret these photos?
NGO Wanker: Sure. Glad to. Anything to help bring the Cheney JDAM express to Tehran.
NYTimes: Right. So anyway, can you provide some background, some context for our readers?
NGO Wanker (examining the image): Ah yes, very unfortunate but typical of these freedom haters. I know exactly what's going on here.
NYTimes (impressed): Wow, that was tres fast! Not since Judith Miller received secret intel on Iraqi nukes from a guy wearing a baseball cap who randomly pointed at a crack in a Baghdad sidewalk has a source been so speedily and decisively convincing.
NGO Wanker (blushing): Well, when you're good at what you do the confidence you feel is as sweet as the sweet teas of Iran.
NYTimes: People enjoy sweet teas in Iran?
NGO Wanker: So my sources tell me.
NYTimes: But back to the photo...
NGO Wanker: Of course. Now, as you can see, the young man being manhandled by Iranian police is wearing a stylish Goldfrapp t-shirt, pin stripe suit jacket and big ass, colored lensed Dior sun glasses (can you say "big ass" in the newspaper?). This marks him as a hipster. In Ohio, if he attended say, Antioch (sad news about the suspension) Josef Vissarionovich Sixpack would toast his en-beaten down state with cans of Duff and a hurky jerky man dance. But here in Iran - and by "here" I mean there because, um, I'm not actually in Iran - they don't just toast it, they do it.
NYTimes: (scratching head) Meaning?
NGO Wanker: Meaning he's being persecuted for "un-Islamic dress". The penalty for hipsters so charged is grave indeed and I shudder to mention it. Your sensitive East Coast Liberal ears (and I mean this as a compliment on your finely tuned sympathies) might melt.
NYTimes: Try us.
NGO Wanker: You've heard, perhaps, of the butt bucket of doom?
NYTimes: Wha...wha?
NGO Wanker: (nodding head somberly) You see? Already your regurgitation impulse begins to activate. The punishment for being an improperly dressed hipster is a swig of water from the butt cleansing bucket of dismay, which is also known as Khamenei's pot O' honey.
NYTimes: Hmmm. Well, although we have no evidence to support your assertions my enthusiasm for believing anything even remotely unpleasant about Iran is all the corroboration required.
NGO Wanker: My work here is done!
.d.