[lbo-talk] Iran's Youth Movements

Dwayne Monroe idoru345 at yahoo.com
Mon Jun 25 13:58:33 PDT 2007


Doug posted (quoting the NYTimes):

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.



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