Sunday
Sep202009
UPDATED Iran: The Extended NBC TV Interview with President Ahmadinejad
Sunday, September 20, 2009 at 19:41
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[Earlier commentaries and videos follow the extended 53-minute interview.]
I have been highly critical of the way NBC publicised and rolled out the earlier versions of this interview (see videos below), first in a "teaser" clip and then in the 6 1/2-minute extract featured on last week's NBC Evening News. The extended version has finally gone out on MSNBC today. To be fair, I'll refrain from further analysis until I've had a chance to give this full consideration.
The full interview went out on NBC's evening news last night. The lead question-and-answer was, "Did You Steal This Election?", the advance clip that we posted below with our less-than-impressed analysis. To be fair to interviewer Ann Curry, she did follow this with a carefully-phrased challenge as to whether Ahmadinejad's forces had rigged the vote. And, of course, the President held the line with his insistence on brave Iranian people recognising his legitimacy by supporting him.
Curry then jumped to the death of Neda Agha Soltan ("What were your emotions when you saw this video?"). The President handled this easily, promising to investigate a suspicous death. Curry then finally got to current issues of detentions, abuses, and torture, to which Ahmadinejad expressed his regret that some people had been killed but far more security forces had been slain. And that was it: Curry then jumped to the nuclear issue and US-Iran talks.
In short? Curry's claim that the President "made news on several fronts" is blather, as she generally referred to a few basic (if important) symbols of past months inside Iran. She showed no knowledge of what is happening in Iran this week, leaving the President free to walk away unscathed. Indeed, he walked away boosted by the legitimacy granted to him by a major US television network more interested in headline ratings than in an appreciation of the complexity and significance of what is happening in the Islamic Republic.
NBC has just posted the first extract from Ann Curry's interview with President Ahmadinejad. Here's their hard-hitting, headline question: "Did you steal the election?"
Pow, what a journalistic coup! Of course, the President was completely flummoxed and said, "Yes. Yes, I did."
OK, not really. Instead he trotted out the line --- familiar to all readers of Enduring America --- that these were the fairest elections in the history of the world, with 85 percent turnout, and other so-called "democracies" should recognise the superior superior system of the Islamic Republic of Iran.
But here's what burns me beyond the ineptitude. Curry's framing of the question of legitimacy is put not in the challenges from the Green movement and those marching on Qods Day but through the Speaker of the Parliament, Ali Larijani.
We'll wait for the rest of the interview but it looks like NBC has given Ahmadinejad and the regime far more legitimacy than they have received from other governments, let alone many of the Iranian people.
The American television network NBC previewed its "exclusive" interview with Mahmoud Ahmadinejad about 1220 GMT. The interview is being conducted this afternoon, presumably to be aired tonight. Meanwhile, NBC has talked to the families of the three Americans detained when they crossed the border into Iran.
Already, however, this is in danger of being a travesty. After patting itself enthusiastically on the back for getting the interview, NBC frames these as the issues "at a critical moment": 1) Iran's nuclear programme and negotiations with the US; 2) Ahmadinejad's appearance at the United Nations; 3) the three US "hitchhikers".
No reference to Qods Day. No reference to Hashemi Rafsanjani, the Supreme Leader, and Friday Prayers. No reference to the Green opposition at all apart from the fleeting note of "crackdown on election protestors".
If I'm wrong when the interview is aired, I will say that with relief. For now, this looks like a perfect storm of Ahmadinejad's manoeuvring and the ineptitude of the US mainstream media.
Buy Us A Cup of Coffee? Help Enduring America Expand Its Coverage and Analysis
[Earlier commentaries and videos follow the extended 53-minute interview.]
I have been highly critical of the way NBC publicised and rolled out the earlier versions of this interview (see videos below), first in a "teaser" clip and then in the 6 1/2-minute extract featured on last week's NBC Evening News. The extended version has finally gone out on MSNBC today. To be fair, I'll refrain from further analysis until I've had a chance to give this full consideration.
Visit msnbc.com for Breaking News, World News, and News about the Economy
The full interview went out on NBC's evening news last night. The lead question-and-answer was, "Did You Steal This Election?", the advance clip that we posted below with our less-than-impressed analysis. To be fair to interviewer Ann Curry, she did follow this with a carefully-phrased challenge as to whether Ahmadinejad's forces had rigged the vote. And, of course, the President held the line with his insistence on brave Iranian people recognising his legitimacy by supporting him.
Curry then jumped to the death of Neda Agha Soltan ("What were your emotions when you saw this video?"). The President handled this easily, promising to investigate a suspicous death. Curry then finally got to current issues of detentions, abuses, and torture, to which Ahmadinejad expressed his regret that some people had been killed but far more security forces had been slain. And that was it: Curry then jumped to the nuclear issue and US-Iran talks.
In short? Curry's claim that the President "made news on several fronts" is blather, as she generally referred to a few basic (if important) symbols of past months inside Iran. She showed no knowledge of what is happening in Iran this week, leaving the President free to walk away unscathed. Indeed, he walked away boosted by the legitimacy granted to him by a major US television network more interested in headline ratings than in an appreciation of the complexity and significance of what is happening in the Islamic Republic.
Visit msnbc.com for Breaking News, World News, and News about the Economy
NBC has just posted the first extract from Ann Curry's interview with President Ahmadinejad. Here's their hard-hitting, headline question: "Did you steal the election?"
Pow, what a journalistic coup! Of course, the President was completely flummoxed and said, "Yes. Yes, I did."
OK, not really. Instead he trotted out the line --- familiar to all readers of Enduring America --- that these were the fairest elections in the history of the world, with 85 percent turnout, and other so-called "democracies" should recognise the superior superior system of the Islamic Republic of Iran.
But here's what burns me beyond the ineptitude. Curry's framing of the question of legitimacy is put not in the challenges from the Green movement and those marching on Qods Day but through the Speaker of the Parliament, Ali Larijani.
We'll wait for the rest of the interview but it looks like NBC has given Ahmadinejad and the regime far more legitimacy than they have received from other governments, let alone many of the Iranian people.
Visit msnbc.com for Breaking News, World News, and News about the Economy
The American television network NBC previewed its "exclusive" interview with Mahmoud Ahmadinejad about 1220 GMT. The interview is being conducted this afternoon, presumably to be aired tonight. Meanwhile, NBC has talked to the families of the three Americans detained when they crossed the border into Iran.
Already, however, this is in danger of being a travesty. After patting itself enthusiastically on the back for getting the interview, NBC frames these as the issues "at a critical moment": 1) Iran's nuclear programme and negotiations with the US; 2) Ahmadinejad's appearance at the United Nations; 3) the three US "hitchhikers".
No reference to Qods Day. No reference to Hashemi Rafsanjani, the Supreme Leader, and Friday Prayers. No reference to the Green opposition at all apart from the fleeting note of "crackdown on election protestors".
If I'm wrong when the interview is aired, I will say that with relief. For now, this looks like a perfect storm of Ahmadinejad's manoeuvring and the ineptitude of the US mainstream media.
Visit msnbc.com for Breaking News, World News, and News about the Economy
Visit msnbc.com for Breaking News, World News, and News about the Economy
This may be one of the most depressing interviews I have ever heard, let alone been a part of. BBC Radio Scotland, using yesterday's news that former President Jimmy Carter had said race played a large part in attacks on the Obama health care and economic proposals, spoke with former US talk radio host Charlie Wolff and me.
Enduring America ($0/story) has taken a great interest in the case of Muntazer al-Zaidi since he was arrested and beaten last December for throwing his shoes at George W. Bush. Yesterday, when al-Zaidi was released, he claimed that he was tortured in detention, including electrical shocks and waterboarding (
From Editor and Publisher
Amidst the current debate about gathering and disseminating news beyond the "mainstream" media, a lesson comes out of a false story on Iran.