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These days it is interesting to compare the U.S. mainstream media with Iranian state run media. When I read NYT and WP or watch CNN or MSNBC, they remind me of Kayhan and Resalat or Iranian TV channels.
The U.S. mainstream media call the private security guards or mercenaries (who according to Guardian are hired at formidable costs of up to £1,000 a day to make Iraq safe for investment) contractors, a term that has the ring of construction and development (you can think about colonialism or este`mar in the same way: building in the colonizers' vocabulary and imperilist and foreign hegemony in colonized vocabulary). Kayhan calls all the reformists traiters or sell outs.They both are very good in changing the titles, most of the time 180 degrees.
Kayhan always reports good things about authoritarians, as U.S. media always report how nice U.S. military staff in Iraq are. No one could hear from the U.S mainstream media that 16 children were killed by the U.S. in Fallujah. Kayhan did not report the killing of Zahra Kazemi by the judiciary officials.
Iranian TV channels are always lagging in reporting what European media are reporting during major combats; the same thing can be seen in CNN and MSNBC. I invite you to compare BBC world that I follow through PBS and American TV news channel during the peak of battles.
The leader and appointed bodies of government are the sanctioned taboos of Iranian state run media, while Israel, CIA and mostly corporate America are the taboos of American mainstream media. They all have taboos in reporting- actually manipulating- the facts, but taboos are different.
