Journalistic Deceit: An Example Of Why You Can't Trust The News Media.
I was looking at the website for channel 45 news, a local ABC affiliate in Winston Salem NC, when I saw a story in the "Trending" column headlined "Iranian news outlet reports over 36,000 killed in protests, marking historic bloodshed". I've been following reports on the protests since they began, and the number of deaths from the protests has generally been counted in the low thousands, not tens of thousands. So I read further in the story to learn what ABC 45 knew that others didn't.
The story said "Iranian news site, Iran International, reported on Sunday that over 36,000 people have been killed during the height of the protests that took place earlier this month". There was no explanation of who Iran International is, but at first I assumed it's a news agency within Iran. But if so, why were they reporting ten times more deaths than the Iranian government? I did some digging and found that Iran International is owned by Volant Media, a company based in the United Kingdom. Volant Media doesn't reveal their ownership. But according to Wikipedia, it is "reportedly linked to Saudi Arabia, [and] it (Iran International) is aimed at Iranians and people interested in Iranian news, culture, politics, society and sports. Iran International has been heavily criticized by the Iranian government for actively encouraging Iranians into anti-government protests and riots by spreading fake news and propaganda and has been described as a tool of Mossad by Barak Ravid. During the Mahsa Amini protests on 9 November 2022, the Iranian Minister of Intelligence Ismail Khatib announced that Iran International had been declared a terrorist organization by the Islamic Republic of Iran, accused of inciting riots protesting the government."
"According to Middle East Eye, Iran International is a media platform for the Iranian opposition. The channel is known for raising the profile of Reza Pahlavi, the last heir apparent to the former Iranian throne, by constant coverage and repeatedly interviewing him."
Reza Pahlavi is the eldest son of Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, the last shah of Iran who eventually became a bribed puppet of the CIA.
It seems apparent that Iran International is essentially a propaganda agency posing as a legitimate news source. And I suspect if its true ownership could be discovered, we'd see funding from America's CIA, the United Kingdom's MI6, and Israel's Mossad.
We should question why ABC 45, owned by Sinclair Broadcasting, would use a source as obviously biased as Iran International. But they aren't alone. Zionist slop-site 'Breitbart' is also quoting them.
Yes, the same number of victims is repeated by Breitbart, and the source of that number is Iran International. Initially, Breitbart also reported that Khamenei had fled to a fortified bunker, but they've since removed that part of the story. But another news site still makes the claim: The Times of Israel.
They write: "Iran’s Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei has gone into hiding in a Tehran bunker, according to the opposition-affiliated Iran International news site". The news site 'India Today' also made the claim, and also gave credit to Iran International as their source. So in one day we have at least four news sites (and probably hundreds more if you count all the stations owned by Sinclair) that published unverified information portraying the leaders of Iran as horrible murderers.
The point of my post isn't to take sides either for or against Iran. The point is that what at first appears to be a legitimate news article on a local television station's website is in reality a biased story from a sketchy source that seems to have an agenda. And this same source is also being used by other news sites around the world.
The average reader doesn't have the time to find out where their news is coming from. Most find sites they like and then trust they're being told the truth.
But as I've revealed here, when you scratch beneath the surface you often find that what you thought was journalism is actually manipulation.
