NIGHTLINE UPDATE: I didn’t see Nightline last night — and the reason why nobody’s talking about this may be that nobody watches Nightline anymore — but I got this email from Aaron Schatz:
Perhaps it is due to the Blogspot problems today, but I am surprised nobody has mentioned last night’s odd Nightline.
The entire show was dedicated to an interview with Bahman Farman Ara, an Iranian film director who lived in the US for a long time before returning to Iran a few years ago. Well, interview is the wrong word – there was no questioner and no question. Ara was allowed to speak for 30 minutes with no response. I can’t imagine Nightline doing a similar show with an Israeli.
Ara is a quiet fellow who seems very thoughtful. His ideas were well-spoken rather than being angry rants. But he still seemed to blame September 11 on United States foreign policy and put forward the idea that if the Palestine problem was solved, nobody would hate the United States.
The most shocking part of the whole show was that Nightline presented this man’s life as if he lived in an Iran that was just like Albany or Sacramento, except it was Muslim. They showed people working, going about their daily business, except that in their cities the billboards contain grotesque anti-semitic cartoons instead of exhortations to buy shoes or see Spider-Man.
They showed Ara sitting around his house with female relatives who were not wearing head scarves, which I believe is illegal in Iran. I was totally amazed. Nightline didn’t even say anything about this.
Ara also had the temerity to say that he shutters whenever he hears the words of John Ashcroft. He believes that Ashcroft is seeking to bypass the constitution and do great damage to American civil liberties. These complaints from a man who lives in IRAN (!) went completely uncommented on by Koppel or anyone else.
All in all, it was one hell of a half hour of unedited, unabashed pro-Iran propaganda, broadcast by the same company that brings you Mickey Mouse, the Stanley Cup playoffs, and the Anaheim Angels. I was dumbfounded.
You really have to mention this.
Consider it mentioned. Did anyone else see this, or is Aaron the only Nightline viewer left in America?