Why Christiane Amanpour is dangerous…

You know how sometimes you see a headline and it catches you? Well, I have to admit while most headlines from CNN related to the Middle East just annoy me, this one got me wondering…Christiane Amanpour writes “Why Rouhani may be different?

I have to admit that I’m a skeptic when it comes to Amanpour and CNN…and I wasn’t disappointed. Let me give you some examples:



Amanpour goes on to mention the Iranian tweets about the Holocaust and Rosh Hashana – ignoring the fact that it was important for the Iranians to then deny the tweet was made. Note that Twitter is blocked in Iran so therefore Iranians would hear the denial but have less access to the fact the tweet was made.

And, beyond that, it boggles the mind that Amanpour puts such emphasis on a few tweets. Wow, they must really love Israel, want peace and not plan a nuclear war because, hey, he posted a few 140 character messages. I’m sure I can retire my gas mask now…

Amanpour writes, “There is no doubt where the vast majority of Iranian people stand: Squarely for moderation, reform, freedom and rapprochement with the west, INCLUDING the United States.”




Is there a different voice coming out of Iran? Maybe yes, maybe no, but without question, Christiane Amanpour with her own familial ties to Iran is not by any means an unbiased source.

She writes that she assumes “the U.S. and the West do not want to go to war with Iran over the nuclear program” but ignores the very real second part of that reality – which is that the US, the West and Israel are, with very good cause, strongly against Iranian’s nuclear program and there is a very good chance, if all else fails, that military action WILL be required.

She chooses to put the emphasis on the first part of that concept while ignoring the second. Rouhani is playing a game with the west. It was a game that Ahmadinejad was not capable of playing. He was, essentially, being too honest.


There is, and has always been, an easy way for the Iranians to stop the sanctions against their country – they have tried rhetoric, threats, intimidation. They have tried vows that they will continue and they have tried righteous indignation arguing they have the right to pursue world destruction if they want to. What they haven’t tried, what Amanpour ignores, is that the sanctions are a result of the nuclear program that is madly rushing towards completion.

If they stop the nuclear program – the sanctions will stop; if they don’t stop the nuclear program, it will be stopped for them. Amanpour may enjoy getting her picture and voice up on the Internet and in the homes of CNN viewers but to extrapolate on what the vast majority of Iranians want is little more than a tactic to influence the west.

Too often, journalists cross the line between reporting the news and making it – Amanpour is guilty, once again, in allowing her ego to frame the interview rather than the actual words of the interviewee.

As all systems are go towards a nuclear Iran, Amanpour’s manipulation at worst/naivete at best is both dangerous and unhelpful.


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