ABC News Discovers State Coercion... in Iran
Activists claim Iran has aired at least 97 coerced confessions from protesters, often after torture, a practice ABC News duly condemns as 'deplorable.' One might wonder, however, where this same righteous indignation goes when examining history's mirror. The U.S., for instance, has a storied past of supporting regimes globally — and indeed, its own security apparatus — implicated in identical
tactics to silence dissent, from COINTELPRO to rendition programs and the black sites of the 'War on Terror.' Yet, somehow, only Tehran's abuses warrant headline outrage. This selective outrage perfectly illustrates a common media playbook: human rights are a weaponized PR tool, not a universal standard. When it's an adversarial state like Iran, every transgression is amplified. When it's an ally,
or perhaps a regime whose stability benefits Western interests, the silence is deafening. Oddly enough, the 'activists' cited are rarely the ones documenting similar abuses in, say, Saudi prisons, or tracing the millions in AIPAC donations that keep certain politicians quiet about documented Israeli abuses. It seems some state-sponsored torture is more 'deplorable' than others.