The conventional wisdom in the US corporate media, that the Iranian election was fraudulent, may in fact be incorrect and simple a propaganda ploy by US interests. Robert Parry reports on a new poll that was taken at the end of September showing that about 81 percent of Iranians had confidence with the election outcome and felt that Ahmadinejad was in fact the legitimate president. This is the exact opposite of how US media portrayed how Iranians felt right after the election. Ahmadinejad’s main support group in Iran continues to be the poor, which is the largest electoral segment in the country. Additionally pre-election polls showed Ahmadinejad with overwhelming support from 18-24 year olds in the country.
According to Parry Ahmadinejad’s opponent Mir-Hossein Mousavvi also suggested that his real fear may have been that he genuinely lost the election. In fact Mousavvi came out with a win declaration before the votes were even finished being counted. This article examines how the United States news media was heavily biased against this election and slanted news coverage was the result.
Title: Was the Iranian Election ‘Rigged’?
Source: consortiumnews.com 9/21/2009
URL: http://www.consortiumnews.com/2009/092109.html
Author: Robert Parry
Student Researcher: Lizzy Dembosz
Faculty Evaluator: Rick Luttmann Ph.D.
Sonoma State University: Sociology of Media, Fall 2009
Instructor: Peter Phillips, #13