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Comment by cubancigar11 | Hacker News Reader

I am tired of this Anti-Iran propaganda in the news.

You obviously have a misunderstanding of what propaganda means. I find this article very interesting and full of factual information, the exact opposite of what propaganda is. It is all about the rescue operation and they don't even go into what provoked the attack on the embassy. Which part of it is propaganda again?

Presumably the part where they don't clearly state that the United States is responsible for all the world's ills.

Sheez. This whole thread is further evidence that off-topic articles should be ruthlessly extirpated.

Are you saying the events described didn't happen?

Propaganda doesn't need to be untrue.

Though this is a US site, and Wired is a US magazine, and the US seem to have something against Iran (or it's nuclear program anyway). You would be hard pressed to find many pro-Iran articles.

> Propaganda doesn't need to be untrue.

So where is the difference between propaganda and reporting?

Propoganda would be to always report on Iran in such negative contexts as CIA espionage and UN sanctions, and never report directly on its innovations or ongoings. Lying by omission, basically.

I don't read Wired enough to know if this is the case.

Usually focus, (only focus on the negative of one side, or the positive of another), or omitting certain facts.

Propaganda involves a deliberate attempt to provoke a desired emotional reaction. As a rough rule of thumb, if the author seeks to make you feel rather than think, it's propaganda. This is generally done with techniques such as distortion of facts, omission of truths, caricatured images, extreme simplification of complex situations and so forth.

Contrary to some opinions, propaganda is not just about making you dislike someone or something else. Montages of your own people/accomplishments/military force, accompanied by stirring music, for example, is propaganda.

I thought this was anti-hollywood.

No. Just that every where I look these days there is an article about Iran. Every next day there is some new article about Iran doing something. And when it isn't then there are articles like these - dug up from the history to fill some new Iran related news. I am scared if this is a precursor to a new war. It looks awfully similar to the last time.

(Btw, I am an Indian in India who has got nothing to do with USA and Iran.)

Actually, having lived in India for a while in the 90s I can tell you that (if you lived in India at that time) you are likely to be more biased against the US (and other NATO powers) and more biased towards Russia and the Arab states.

India was "non-aligned" during the cold war but was fairly tilted towards the USSR (cheap munitions, convenient ideology) and this was conveyed through the strongly controlled media.

Due to the size and volatility of the Muslim population in India there were many moves to appear (and push people to appear) allied with the Arab states and against Israel.

I wonder what, in general, the modern viewpoint is. Young people in India now are more into consumer goods and I think less political than they were 20 years ago, but I only get brief snapshots now.

Funny, the same can be said of people living in the US and US allies. The west has a very "strongly controlled media" too, and the message being sent is quite clear.

I'm sure you can have the opinion that media in North America and Western Europe is very strongly controlled, but it is a fact that mass media (Television and radio, though not newspapers) in India up to the end of the 90s were state controlled. After liberalization in the late 90s private television stations opened up.

I didn't question the history of media in India. I only pointed out that there is "blind spot" in discussing "free media".

>> Actually, having lived in India for a while in the 90s I can tell you that (if you lived in India at that time) you are likely to be more biased against the US (and other NATO powers) and more biased towards Russia and the Arab states.

Then can someone tell the hordes of Indians getting into the US since the 90's they were/are somehow confused and need to change direction towards Russia and India. Thanks!

There was a program where people in certain sectors went to the USSR to get educated. It wasn't very big. Also, I have found, people are fairly pragmatic politics is politics and business is business. Indians come to the US because they have an infrastructure here (established Indians) and job opportunities, neither of which exist in scale in the USSR.

Actually, if you have a look at the date this article was written in 2007. So it's certainly not part of any concerted effort to make Iran look bad or a precursor to a new war.

This article was probably dug up because the movie Argo just came out.

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