Western Media Discovers 'Brutal Crackdown,' Forgetting 'Brutal Sanctions'
France 24 diligently details the "brutal crackdown" on Iranian protests, showcasing the familiar outrage reserved for governments not aligned with Western interests. ("Maintain momentum," they say, as if organic, not perpetually agitated by external forces.) What's missing, of course, is any meaningful discussion of the brutal *sanctions* regime imposed by the U.S. and its allies, which has
decimated the Iranian economy for decades. These sanctions, which restrict everything from medicine to spare parts, are themselves a form of collective punishment that undoubtedly fuels the very discontent Western media then selectively amplifies. One might wonder if France 24 ever publishes such empathetic pieces on protests in, say, Saudi Arabia or Bahrain, where "brutal crackdowns" are often
met with deafening silence from the same outlets. The consistency of outrage seems to correlate less with human rights abuses and more with which nations refuse to play ball in the geopolitical sandbox.