In a world gripped by fear, violence, and distrust, a world teetering on the edge of annihilation with civilization hanging on by the merest of threads, it is nice to know that some things simply stink, no matter where you are. Say, for example, the media. And by the way, X users aren't helping much.
Who can forget this epic CNN report, which was destined to launch a thousand memes and snarky comments?
And then there was this historic moment of Big Media duplicity and complicity, courtesy of NBC:
Someone cue "The Benny Hill Show" theme.
Ah. It's always nice to dip back into the classics for a trip down Memory Lane, isn't it? Not to be outdone, the Iranian news media managed to botch things up in a spectacular fashion during its coverage of their nation's failed attack on Israel.
Maybe it was shoddy journalism. Or maybe it was a desperate attempt to snatch victory from the jaws of defeat, make a silk purse out of a sow's ear, or just polish a t*rd. Maybe it was a combination of those. Whatever the case, the Islamic Republic of Iran News Network (IRINN) decided to plumb the depths of X to find gripping news footage of the weekend drone attack. After all, the best news is found on Twitter. It isn't necessarily accurate or even true news, but that's where all the best news is.
The New York Post notes that IRINN showed footage purported to be of panicked Israelis fleeing the drone attack.
#Iran's state broadcaster's IRINN rolling news channel also showed the same video in a report this morning, claiming that it showed panicking Israelis amid the last night's Iranian attack on #Israel. pic.twitter.com/BPbhE4zu9m
— Niko Kelbakiani (@NikoKelbakiani) April 14, 2024
A fact checker for the BBC later discovered that the footage was of an excited crowd of happy fans gathered around the Four Seasons Hotel in Buenos Aires, hoping for a glimpse of Louis Tomlinson. Tomlinson is a former member of the band One Direction. The fact-checking website Lead Stories reported that the footage is from April 6 of this year. The people in the footage were thrilled because Tomlinson was signing autographs and posing for photos. One X user posted, “but guys there I am RUNNING TO LOUIS, it's the four seasons hdp …I attach evidence of me running crazy bad” (sic).
I'm guessing that this particular gathering was mostly peaceful.
But wait, there's more. According to the Post, IRINN also claimed to have images of the Nevatim Airbase in the Negev desert in flames from the assault. The images were actually of a Chilean forest fire in February. As if that were not enough, IRINN showed footage purported to be of Palestinians celebrating the attack at the Al-Aqsa Mosque on the Temple Mount. It was later discovered that the revelers were celebrating the end of Ramadan. So, three sets of footage, all of them wrong, and two of them not even taking place in Israel. Either the people at IRINN were not smart enough to check their sources on X, or they just didn't care.
It is at least cold comfort to know that wherever you live and whatever regime you are living under, you can still count on the media to lie to you or screw things up. In a twisted way, it kind of brings us all together. You just want to gather all those journalists in one place for a big hug and say, "Don't push, everyone! Wait your turn. We have plenty of rakes, and you all can step on one!"
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