Here’s an object lesson that shows just how far some press—and even Israeli government officials—have gone down the rabbit hole on Iran issues by propagating a story reported on a conspiracy website. The dubious tale goes like this: there was a huge explosion at Iran’s main nuclear facility at Fordow, near the city of Qom, leaving hundreds of workers … trapped in the underground facility.
The facility is the source of much trepidation in Israel, where fears of insufficient military capabilities make the nuclear plant impenetrable to Israeli attack.
The report came from a completely unreliable character writing for none other than World Net Daily, a website most famous for being the most prominent hub of the “Birther” conspiracy theory positing that Barack Obama is a secret Muslim and not American (among other conspiracy theories about the Obama administration). What’s more, the story, thanks to a firm denial by American officials, reveals yet another rift between the Obama administration and Israel’s government over Iran—a rift that can be laid nowhere except at the feet of overeager Israeli officials.
Yup… That’s the way Bibi’s government works: duplicity, deception, and misinformation. Notice the bits I’ve put in bold for emphasis. And there’s more- which do read.
It’s not just Israel. Jordan, Egypt, Iraq, Libya, Saudi-Arabia: the press is just politics with other means. There are not enough western journalists to check all stories. The exception may, at this moment, be Syria, of which we are at least aware of the bias.
When it comes to western countries and Iran, that is western countries with specific interests in that part of the world and even peculiar relationships with Israel, I think a lot the western countries are capable of lying, and do.