News Outlets Discover Brutality, But Only When Convenient
Deutsche Welle breathlessly reports 'dozens killed' by security forces in Iran, expressing deep concern for protesting citizens. One must wonder, however, where this potent outrage is when, say, journalists covering protests in the US are shot with rubber bullets, or when Indigenous land defenders face state-sanctioned violence for protecting their resources. The selective indignation is glaring.
This 'human rights' lens seems to activate primarily when a nation is already on the US Department of State's target list. (How many stories lament the dozens of Palestinian journalists killed by 'security forces' without ever mentioning the source of those weapons?) The hypocrisy is a feature, not a bug, ensuring that official adversaries are always painted as barbarous, while allies, no matter
how brutal, receive a pass, or better yet, more advanced weaponry. One might wonder if DW would run an equally concerned piece about protestors killed in, say, Medellín, Colombia, by US-trained forces.