[Mb-civic] FW: ABC News and Bob Woodruff put CBS and Dan Rather to shame

[Golsorkhi]

------ Forwarded Message
From: "Farhad Sepahbody" <sepa at sedona.net>
Date: Sun, 3 Apr 2005 10:24:53 -0700
To: <grgolsorkhi at earthlink.net>
Subject: Fw: ABC News and Bob Woodruff put CBS and Dan Rather to shame

 
----- Original Message -----
From: Banafsheh Zand-Bonazzi <mailto:onebusybee at earthlink.net>
To: Banafsheh Zand-Bonazzi <mailto:onebusybee at earthlink.net>
Sent: Sunday, April 03, 2005 9:51 AM
Subject: ABC News and Bob Woodruff put CBS and Dan Rather to shame

  
Saturday, April 02, 2005
Shame on ABC: An Iranian Student Responds to ABC’s Nightline report by Bob
Woodruff 
The other night ABC’s Nightline broadcast an interview from inside of Iran.
I received a number of emails about the broadcast. I did not see it, but my
readers follow the events in Iran closely they told me they were amazed at
the questions in the interview and the naivete or deceit of the interviewer,
Bob Woodruff. They were concerned that the American public was given a false
understanding of what is happening in Iran. Many said the broadcast appeared
to be shameful propaganda for the Iranian regime.

One of those angered by the broadcast was a student who just escaped Iran
for supporting its pro-democracy forces there. This student wrote the
following public statement to ABC News, Bob Woodruff and the Nightline
staff, and asked me to publish it here:
> A few nights ago, I was watching ABC's  Nightline and I was angered to
> discover how the main stream media could twist  what is happening in my poor
> country. The report was broadcast just two nights  after the deadly protests
> of Tehran which resulted in death of 8 young Iranian  soccer fans.
> 
> Nightline’s Bob Woodruff was in Tehran and met with some  young Iranians and
> asked them how they felt about their government, society  and freedom.
> Unfortunately, he was able to get them to say what he wanted  to hear!
> 
> He asked them if they knew how the regime arrests freedom  loving people or
> how many newspapers had been shut down.
> 
> None of those  who were questioned could answer the questions properly. One
> responded, “I do  not know how they arrest people, I have never heard that
> they arrest people.”  Another girl in the session said the same thing. Such
> statements are beyond belief
> <BLOCKED::">http://www.etalkinghead.com/news/archives/iranian-blogger-to-serve
> -14-years-2005-03-05.html>
> <http://www.etalkinghead.com/news/archives/iranian-blogger-to-serve-14-years-2
> 005-03-05.html>  .
> 
> I can speak from personal experience. Iranians know  the danger of being
> arrested in Iran for violating one of the many so called  crimes against the
> Islamic Republic. One may be arrested for simply being with  a friend of the
> opposite sex. I was arrested twice for walking with my girl  friend in the
> streets of Tehran. I know how they arrest people both in public  and in
> private. Most of my friends have been caught for exercising their basic
> rights of freedom in Iran.
> 
> If Bob Woodruff wanted the truth, he should  have sought out the stories of
> those who have been get caught by the regime  militias or police forces. Then
> he would understand why we want an end to this  regime.
> 
> Mr. Woodruff, “What kind of question was that to ask these  young Iranians?”
> If you wanted to know if the Iranian regime arrests people,  just watch CNN or
> other news channel files on Iran's July 1999 protests and  you would be able
> to see the answer with your own eyes.
> 
> Why doesn't the  mainstream media talk to people who are willing to talk,
> people like me and  the thousands of Iranians like me who have the courage to
> talk about the mad  Mullahs and their brutal reign?
> 
> I felt sorry for those in that  interview session with Bob Woodruff. I suspect
> they were frightened. They were  likely afraid of the consequences of their
> contact with the foreign media. Or  they were cowards, lacking the strength to
> speak out against the Mullahs  before a foreign audience. Sadly, they lost a
> great moment to tell the truth  about the regime and I am so sorry for them.
> 
> Today, the world needs to  know why so many of us in Iran hate the Mullahs
> ruling our beloved country.  The world needs to know why we are so angry and
> desperate. The sad fact is  that Iran’s human rights record is getting worse
> every day and the only way we  can attract the world’s attention to our
> country's problems is to talk to the  mainstream media. I thought reporters
> coming to Iran would seek out the truth  and report it. However, now I really
> doubt there is any fair and un-biased  media existing in this world.
> 
> I ask you Mr. Woodruff, we are just  learning what the Iranian regime did
> <BLOCKED::">http://www.abc.net.au/news/newsitems/200504/s1335987.htm>
> <http://www.abc.net.au/news/newsitems/200504/s1335987.htm>   to the visiting
> Canadian journalist Zahra Kazemi
> <BLOCKED::">http://www.frontpagemag.com/Articles/ReadArticle.asp?ID=17558>
> <http://www.frontpagemag.com/Articles/ReadArticle.asp?ID=17558>   in the
> infamous Evin prison. Have you ever heard about her?  Have you tried to talk
> to her family? If you would have talked to her family,  you could have found
> out how they arrest people in Iran from them. You could  have also discovered
> what can happen to those who get caught by the regime. It  is so easy to find
> out the truth in Iran. Mr. Woodruff, turn off your camera  and talk to people
> in the streets of Tehran.
> 
> I am not writing here to  protest the way my fellow Iranians answered Bob
> Woodruff’s questions. What I  am trying to say is that the left leaning
> mainstream media in the US appear to  have no respect for those who fight for
> their own freedom!
> 
> We, in Iran,  do seek a legitimate form of government which respects all
> groups of people  and behave like a civilized regime in the world and
> represent all Iranians in  a very democratic way.
> 
> I was so ashamed of my Iranian brethren who did  not dare talk about the dirty
> deeds of the regime. But I can not blame them. I  know in what conditions they
> are living and how frustrating it  is!
> 
> Perhaps they were really tired of talking because there is no body  listening
> to them!?
> 
> What I have been asking myself was it possible that  ABC either hired those
> guys to say what Bob Woodruff wanted them to say and  hear or were they just
> too frightened to speak out.
> 
> The truth will come  out once my country is free and we proudly take back our
> country from the evil  rule of the radical Mullahs.
> 
> God Bless Iran!
> Freedom for  Iranians!
I hope ABC is listening.


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