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Don’t get confused by Brian Hook attacking VOA Persian. Reality is that VOA Persian has already become a PR machine for Trump, and VOA staff viciously attack Trump’s critics.
Read this important piece:
“VOA Persian Has Turned Into a Mouthpiece of Trump” http://theintercept.com/2019/08/13/trump-voa-persian/
Read this important piece:
“VOA Persian Has Turned Into a Mouthpiece of Trump” http://theintercept.com/2019/08/13/trump-voa-persian/
Since November 2016, VOA Persian and its staff have become rabidly pro-Trump, abandoning their stated mission of providing balanced news to Iranians. They have been lashing out at Americans who don’t support Trump’s Iran policy.
VOA Persian was always anti-regime, said Ali Sajjadi who was senior managing editor there.
Former exec. editor @Manzarpour was shocked when he arrived at VOA Persian in 2013, after many years at BBC, to discover his new company was filled with monarchists and supporters of MEK.
Former exec. editor @Manzarpour was shocked when he arrived at VOA Persian in 2013, after many years at BBC, to discover his new company was filled with monarchists and supporters of MEK.
Since Trump was elected, VOA Persian has become, as Ali Sajjadi puts it, “a mouthpiece of Trump — only Trump and nothing but Trump.”
@Manzarpour describes the situation as “blatant propaganda.” He said: “There is no objectivity or factuality.”
@Manzarpour describes the situation as “blatant propaganda.” He said: “There is no objectivity or factuality.”
MEK is covered heavily and favorably despite having no support in Iran, a history of terroristic violence, and a well-founded reputation as a cult.
VOA Persian, for the first time in decades, is acting as media arm of MEK and is giving wall-to-wall live coverage of their events.
VOA Persian, for the first time in decades, is acting as media arm of MEK and is giving wall-to-wall live coverage of their events.
VOA Persian also published multiple articles by Heshmat Alavi, a pro-MEK non-existent persona exposed by @MazMHussain as having been the product of a multiperson propaganda outfit housed in an MEK compound in Albania. http://theintercept.com/2019/06/09/heshmat-alavi-fake-iran-mek
VOA aired puff pieces on Reza Pahlavi, son of former Shah whom Iran hawks see as a viable opposition leader. Hard-line Iran hawks are frequent guests on VOA for friendly interviews. including Trump officials like Mike Pompeo, John Bolton, Elliott Abrams, also Benjamin Netanyahu.
Pundits like Michael Ledeen have appeared on VOA, as have personnel from three heavily neoconservative Washington think tanks: the Foundation for the Defense of Democracies, the Heritage Foundation, and the Hudson Institute.
