A fascinating interview with John Pilger by Amy Goodman of ‘Democracy Now!’ Among other subjects and situations he discusses, Pilger compares the coverage of the Iranian election with that of the military coup in Honduras exposing the hypocrisies and contradictions in mainstream media’s reporting of both situations. 

At the time of writing the transcript of the interview with Pilger  is still in need of a little editing, but the video, at same link, at 59 mins is good.  Pilger gets to the heart of the question of why it is that so many on the liberal left can be whipped up to such fervour against the Iranian government, who for all their undoubted faults are nevertheless far less culpable when it comes to crimes against humanity as compared to many other governments including the United States itself.  

Over the last week or two we have seen a military coup in Honduras and the kidnapping of 21 peace activists inlcuding a Nobel Laureate and a former US Congresswoman bringing desperately needed medicines and toys to Gaza.  The media response to the latter situation has been something akin to bored indifference.   On the other hand 2 Irish aid workers are kidnapped in Sudan and the media is up on its hind legs with concern.  The difference between the Honduran/Iranian coverage and that of the Sudanese/Israeli kidnappings?   It all depends on what the US view is, basically. 

We analysed the media coverage of Ahmadenijad while he was on a trip to the United Nations a year ago.  Our Media Shot included a contribution from Noam Chomsky who delineated the gross injustice and hypocrisy of US foreign policy towards Iran. Looks like the important facts and true history of relations between US/Iran, US/Honduras, US/Iraq, US/ Chile US/Take your pick from about 70 odd countries over the last century – are about to disappear down the memory hole again.