If not for the news media, most people would likely go through life missing some important information. For example, if they missed Monday’s Morning Joe, they would have missed the “fact” that many Americans are just like Iran’s theocratic tyrants.
During a discussion of the tension between Iran’s radical Muslim leaders and its allegedly "progressive" people, host Joe Scarborough made a comment that might as well have come from the mouth of Chris Matthews. "We really saw the split in 2009 that I said at the time, oh, my God, there’s a red-state Tehran and there’s a blue-state Tehran."
Just in case anyone was confused as to which was which, Thomas Erdbrink, the Tehran Bureau Chief of The New York Times, was quick to clarify. "I guess at that point, until that point no one else had seen the, let's call it ‘blue state Tehran’ and the Iranian leaders have been skillful in hiding the social changes that have taken place in Iran over the past thirty years."
With a single sentence, Scarborough branded all American red-state-friendly conservatives with the mark of Islamic tyranny. This is especially odd, given that American conservatives push for limited government, reject theocracy as a rule, and are the most hawkish advocates of removing the so called "red state" Tehran for the sake of this "blue state" Tehran.
The discussion did not get much better as it approached the topics of sanctions. As leftists are wont to do, Gillian Tett of the Financial Times did her best to paint a narrative that suggested that the progress in Iran has little to do with American efforts. “The question of whether or not sanctions are really working needs to be asked because certainly many American politicians assume that that's been the big weapon to actually get Iran to the negotiating table. To me it's not clear necessarily that sanctions really worked. It's really as much to do with the social changes going on in the country today which have gone largely ignored.”
Erdbrink agreed, saying that his journalistic efforts in Iran led him to an encounter with a citizen who informed him that the imposers of sanctions hurt the Iranian people more than anyone else.
Naturally, no one bothered to question whether the tyrannical character of Iran’s regime had a factor in how Erdbrink’s interviewees answered his questions.
Also ignored was the fact that Tett supplied no evidence to suggest that the social changes were most responsible for pushing the mullahs to the negotiating table. Furthermore, no one questioned whether or not the sanctions helped facilitate those social changes.
Finally, Erdbrink spoke of the increased internet access in Iran and noted the hardliners’ fear of its role in promoting progress in the culture. This prompted Tett to invoke the example of the Arab Spring to suggest that, "at the end of the day internet may be more powerful than sanctions in terms of promoting change."
The fact that Nicolle Wallace mentioned that the Iranian “government's response [to the 2009 revolt] was to shut down social media” did little to shake Tett’s faith in the prospect of protesters doing more damage to the regime through twitter cries of #IranFail than things like weapons or sanctions.
Transcript below:
JOE SCARBOROUGH: So Thomas, let me begin with you. You know, Tehran has always been an extraordinary city in an extraordinary culture with an extraordinary history. But we really saw the split in 2009 that I said at the time, oh, my god, there’s a red state Tehran and there’s a blue state Tehran.
THOMAS ERDBRINK (Tehran Bureau Chief, The New York Times): Yes.
SCARBOROUGH: And 50 percent of Tehran wants the mullahs out, the other 50 percent will kill the other 50 percent if they try.
ERDBRINK: Exactly. Well, and I guess at that point, until that point no one else had seen the, let's call it "blue state Tehran" and the Iranian leaders have been skillful in hiding the social changes that have taken place in Iran over the past thirty years. And also, of course international media has not paid a lot of attention to it. But Iran is a country that has undergone tremendous changes. I mean 60% of women are dominating universities. 70% of all Iranis is under 35 years. These people, they want to connect to the world, they want to have better relations with other countries. And most of all, they want to see change. And they're very different from Mr. Big mouth, who you just saw in my video.
SCARBOROUGH: Yeah. David Ignatius though but that's always been the case with Iran and the Iranians. I remember talking to U.S. Military people who had trained Iranians before the '79 revolution, and they just talked about how they were some of the best and the brightest that they had ever met, some of the most educated and also said that never mistake them for arrows because they will tell in you a second that they are far, far above culturally and historically.
DAVID IGNATIUS (Washington Post): Well Persian culture is powerful. My friend Thomas Erdbrink, I just want to ask Thomas, is there anyway for you to assess what those younger connected Tehran men and women would do in the event that the nuclear negotiations fail? Will those people be out in the streets protesting against the regime, demanding Iran go back to negotiations? What would be your guess?
ERDBRINK: Well that's a very good and valid question. Of course I'm definitely sure that if there will be a deal or if there will be no deal, it will definitely be an end to the status quo as we have seen it now with Iran and also be an end to the status quo for the Iranian people. These young people have been hoping, dreaming almost of a deal. It doesn't mean that they’re willing to sell out their nuclear program just like that, it doesn't mean that they don’t want to see their negotiators "succeed" in the negotiations. But still would there be an end to these talks, a sudden end then what prospect is left for people? Sanctions.
SCARBOROUGH: Gilli.
GILLIAN TETT (Financial Times): I think one of the questions to ask though also is how much impact the sanctions actually having on the ground. Because I spent years in that part of the world myself. I know that the picture is much more complex than it’s often portrayed in the Western media. But the question of whether or not sanctions are really working needs to be asked because certainly many American politicians assume that that's been the big weapon to actually get Iran to the negotiating table. To me it's not clear necessarily that sanctions really worked.ERDBRINK: Yeah.
TETT: It's really as much to do with the social changes going on in the country today which have gone largely ignored.
ERDBRINK: Yeah. that’s of course very true. And in the first video I’ve made, you actually see me walking into a supermarket and you can see Heinz tomato ketchup, you can see western products. And the shop owner tells me, "look these sanctions, the only thing they have done, they have increased smuggling, prices have gone up but we can get everything here in Iran. So you're hurting basically the wrong people with sanctions, not the leaders, but the people."
TETT: Absolutely.
NICOLLE WALLACE: The tragic death of the protestor, I think her name, was it Neda?
ERDBRINK: Yes.
WALLACE: and government's response was to shut down social media, to shut down that young, you said more progressive--
ERDBRINK: Yeah. To shut them off from the world, make them quiet (?).
WALLACE: Was there any reform that happened after that, was there any demand?
ERDBRINK: Yeah.
WALLACE: Did twitter or you know, did any of the ?
ERDBRINK: No. Well, here's the thing. In Iran, you can't just take out your phone and go to Twitter and you can’t just go to Facebook. You need to use a sort of illegal software, which is called VPN. Once you go online using VPN, you have access to these websites. What Rouhani has done, it might seem like a very small change to us, but he has introduced 3G to Iran, of course here we are a lot further, but that means that people suddenly now can share their pictures, they can go on the street and of course these hard liners are very afraid of these changes because they might, you know, lead to more progress in other things.
TETT: You need, look at what’s happened in the Arab Spring to see what has actually happened but, you know to how powerful, at the end of the day internet may be more powerful than sanctions in terms of promoting change.
