Washington Post journalist Robin Wright ran a prominent story today about how “two dozen Iranian American and human rights groups” have written a letter calling for Congress to cut democracy funding for Iran. She goes on to describe the signatories as an assortment of “liberal and conservative pro-democracy groups.” Wright’s characterization is, at best, spectacularly misleading. In fact, the lion’s share of signatories consist of an assortment of anti-war left wing zealots (Peace Action, Vietnam Veterans Against War, and my personal favorite, “World Can’t Wait, Drive Out the Bush Regime”) and the just plain weird (Justice Through Music, Center for Persian Classical Music). Wright also didn’t bother to interview anyone who might hold a contrary opinion to these kooky groups, but rather repeats their assertions as facts. The article also misleadingly suggests that Human Rights Watch is a signatory to the letter. It is not. And the article states that the Senate added $75 million to the Iran democracy program earlier this year “at the administration’s request.” It did not. Rather, the Senate unanimously passed a bipartisan amendment on its own accord that raised funding to this level. Of course, for those of us who have been following Wright’s work, we are accustomed to her hallmarks: deceptive mischaracterizations, opinions masquerading as facts, and plain factual errors–all in service of her left-wing ideological agenda.
