Iran's Navy Is Absolutely 'Dazzling'
In today's tour of state-sponsored propaganda: Iran gets whimsical about its navy, China disses Hillary, and Russia slashes its propaganda outlets. We begin in Iran.
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Iran Goes Overboard
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Military chest-thumping is a routine practice for Iran's state media outlets, but rarely do they use the kind of fanciful adjectives employed in today's article about Iran's "dazzling" navy. "A commander of Iran's Navy says world powers are bedazzled by the country's great naval achievements," reads a story on the state-controlled Press TV. (Emphasis ours.) While a typical pride-boosting article may promote the military's "effectiveness," "lethality" or "formidable force," as others have, today's Iranian navy sounds like a Vegas showing of Cirque du Soleil. "Iran's naval advances dazzling" reads the headline. The meat of the article claims that the country "has taken great leaps in manufacturing invaluable equipment" for its navy, though it has zero details about the equipment that has supposedly "astounded the global powers." In some respects, you've got to sympathize with the Press TV propagandists who have to convince readers of Iran's military might with flowery language in the absence of actual facts.
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China Has a Weird Way of Dissing Hillary Clinton
As Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton endures a lot of cartoonishly-sexist put-downs in her travels around the world. But occasionally, the put-downs actually sound a lot like compliments to Western ears. For instance, an editorial in China's People's Daily today that slams her for being a, wait for it, "preacher for human rights." Gasp! The article is in reference to Clinton's East Asian tour calling for greater democratic reforms in Cambodia, Mongolia, and Laos. "Who gave America the right to arrogantly criticise the status of democracy in Asia?" reads the piece. "America is not the judge on human rights for the world and Asia. There is not a generic system that fits all countries." Really China? "Hillary Clinton, human rights preacher"? That's the best you can do?
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The Gravy Train Ends for Russian State Media
Russia's financing of 24-hour news network Russia Today has successfully injected a Kremlin-centric view of the world across the Web. To a lesser extent, the same goes for its state newspapers and TV stations. Unfortunately, the subsidies are starting to dry up, reports The Moscow News. "Russian state-owned media outlets are to face budget cuts, as the government is to slash nearly 4 billion rubles from their planned funding this year." The total budget set aside for state media is 75.38 billion rubles so it's not as if the properties will be starved for cash. Still, if we could make a recommendation, please spare RT's The Alyona Show. Without it, cub reporters in Washington won't have any way of practicing for their first nervous appearance on CSPAN in the U.S.
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