Freedom of the press is guaranteed only to those who own one
Shimon the Brazilian (and Mahmoud the Conqueror)
I am not sure how to explain this strange report from Al Jazeera’s Lucia Newman: the headline reads: ‘Brazilians protest Ahmadinejad tour‘, yet the only person in the report shown protesting is Shimon Peres. On the other hand, the single Brazilian who is interviewed speaks about the benefits of relations with Iran, and the president is reported to be welcoming Ahmadinejad with ‘open arms’.
Peres, I hate to tell Al Jazeera, is not a Brazilian; even if he were, he would need to persuade at least one other before he can stage a ‘Brazilians protest’.
Also, the report goes on to tells us in ominous Cold War cliches that Ahmadinejad is challenging ‘Washington in its own back yard’. What’s with this ‘back yard’ nonsense; does being a journalist mean never having to say a thing that’s original?
I am a Lecturer in Digital Journalism at the University of Stirling and a former research fellow at the University of Denver’s Center for Middle East Studies. I am the author of The Road to Iraq: The Making of a Neoconservative War (Edinburgh University Press, 2014). I write for The Observer, The Nation, The Daily Beast, Los Angeles Review of Books, The Atlantic, The New Republic, Al Jazeera, Dissent, The National, VICE News, Huffington Post, In These Times, Le Monde Diplomatique, Die Tageszeitung (TAZ), Adbusters, Guernica, London Review of Books (Blog), The New Arab, Bella Caledonia, Asia Times, IPS News, Medium, Political Insight, The Drouth, Canadian Dimension, Tanqeed, Variant, etc. I have appeared as an on-air analyst on Al Jazeera, the BBC, TRT World, RAI TV, Radio Open Source with Christopher Lydon, Alternative Radio with David Barsamian and several Pacifica Radio channels.
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4 thoughts on “Shimon the Brazilian (and Mahmoud the Conqueror)”
Notice how the image of the protest is shown before you press play on the video, yet is nowhere to be seen within the piece! Nicely done, reminiscent of Fox news’ doctoring of protest images in recent weeks.
The reporter also failed to mention that Peres was greeted with protests himself on arrival in Brazil!
Around 500 have protested Ahmadinejad’s visit to Brazil. You would expect that there are at least 500 world-savvy humans in Brazil to take a stance against this pure image of shame and shit!
I’m brazillian. Our local news talk about 300 protesters, what is, well… insignificant. The “protest” take place on the beach, what doesn’t add much significance. A coleague of mine call this: the middle class does a “revolution” to overthrow the government….of Iran. Sorry, it’s an inside brazillian joke.
Anyway there have been the usual amount of heat in the blogosfere, fora, etc., mostly Israel supporters spreading propaganda and anti-Iran histeria, and people like me spreading some facts, trying to cool the histeria.
Otherwise most of the people have no idea of what is going on on this issue, and I have to warn you that most of the local media companies support the political oposition to Lula’s government, so anything he does is showed as wrong.
So long as Ahmadinejad doesn’t team up with the Nicaraguan Hordes in our backyard, we should be safe in our beds for the moment. But man, helping Chavez search for uranium? That can only mean one thing. Scaaaaaary!
What would we do without Shimon Peres to defend us?
P U L S E 
Notice how the image of the protest is shown before you press play on the video, yet is nowhere to be seen within the piece! Nicely done, reminiscent of Fox news’ doctoring of protest images in recent weeks.
The reporter also failed to mention that Peres was greeted with protests himself on arrival in Brazil!
Around 500 have protested Ahmadinejad’s visit to Brazil. You would expect that there are at least 500 world-savvy humans in Brazil to take a stance against this pure image of shame and shit!
I’m brazillian. Our local news talk about 300 protesters, what is, well… insignificant. The “protest” take place on the beach, what doesn’t add much significance. A coleague of mine call this: the middle class does a “revolution” to overthrow the government….of Iran. Sorry, it’s an inside brazillian joke.
Anyway there have been the usual amount of heat in the blogosfere, fora, etc., mostly Israel supporters spreading propaganda and anti-Iran histeria, and people like me spreading some facts, trying to cool the histeria.
Otherwise most of the people have no idea of what is going on on this issue, and I have to warn you that most of the local media companies support the political oposition to Lula’s government, so anything he does is showed as wrong.
So long as Ahmadinejad doesn’t team up with the Nicaraguan Hordes in our backyard, we should be safe in our beds for the moment. But man, helping Chavez search for uranium? That can only mean one thing. Scaaaaaary!
What would we do without Shimon Peres to defend us?