The Portrayal of Iran in Western Media

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By Gary Smith Journalist - South Africa An analysis of the biased way in which Iran is portrayed in the general media provokes a certain feeling of ironic dismay. Mainstream Western media has tended to promote the idea of Iran as pivotal to the alleged “axis of evil”. A perception has been created in the United States in particular that Iran is some monstrous state that is dictatorially administered and an unquestioned platform for the recruitment and proliferation of terrorism. These views and pronouncements about Iran in the Western media have in fact created a myopic view of the reality and thus engendered a false mystique of threat and incipient evil. Yet, in the first instance, there is an element of hypocrisy in this view of Iran as the aggressor and proponent of evil. Labeling Iran in the media as the “enemy” has caused a great amount of suffering in that country over the years, a fact that is barely reported in the mainstream Western media. The truth is that this country has a long yet less publicized history of hostile opposition from Western adversaries. An analysis of the media presentation of events surrounding Iran smacks more of propaganda than of genuine unbiased reportage.