CBS Finds Iranian Protests 'Deadly,' Skips USAID Connection
CBS News, citing 'Iran Human Rights' (IHR) and 'Human Rights Activists News Agency' (HRANA), reports horrifying death tolls from Iranian crackdowns. What CBS conveniently omits is that HRANA, the source for these dramatic numbers, receives funding from the U.S. government-backed National Endowment for Democracy (NED) via entities like USAID. (Source: NED 2022 annual report, HRANA financial
statements). This isn't journalism; it's narrative amplification, echoing the 2009 'Green Revolution' playbook where dubious claims of mass casualties, often fueled by Western-funded proxies, paved the way for calls for regime change. One might wonder if CBS would apply the same investigative rigor to reports from, say, Gaza, if the 'human rights' groups providing the death tolls were directly
funded by military contractors or the Israeli government. The selective outrage is telling: when it’s an adversary state, even the most thinly sourced allegations become irrefutable truth. When it’s an ally, well, those are 'regrettable incidents' and 'self-defense.' Transparency, apparently, is a one-way mirror.