Debbie Schlussel: No Tears for Roxana Saberi & Reporters Held in N. Korea: Poetic Justice for Iran's BBC/NPR Apologist
While the mainstream media and even so many clueless conservatives moan about Iran's arrest and conviction of BBC/NPR "reporter" Roxana Saberi, you'll hear no tears from me. Ditto for the two reporters detained in North Korea, including execrable Oprah "reporter" Lisa Ling's sister.
I couldn't care less that the Iranian apologist Saberi is a dual American-Iranian citizen or that she was a Miss America contestant. The "American" part of this woman long ago died, but has suddenly rebirthed itself, now that the government for which she cheerled, actually turned out to be the way she pretended it wasn't.
Roxana Saberi made her career as an apologist for Iran in her gushing reports for BBC, NPR (National Public Radio a/k/a National "Palestinian" Radio), and other media outlets for whom she freelanced over how "liberal" the country is. One of those pandering reports, ironically, was from a soccer match, where others of her gender are not allowed to attend and are sent to jail when they do. But not her. She was privileged in Iran and used that privilege as a platform to be a blatant sop. But she used her privileged position to promote the country endlessly and unapologetically. And now that she's been arrested and tried, it's poetic justice at its finest.
While Ms. Saberi could travel to and from Iran at will, hundreds of Iranian Jews are still not allowed to leave. When one of them does leave, his/her family members are held hostage by the government of Iran, until they return. Instead of covering things like this, Ms. Saberi painted a picture of Iran as Candyland, where everything's coming up lollipops and gum drops. Even her father, Reza Saberti of Fargo, acknowledged, she's "only used her position to promote this country [Iran]. For this woman, I'm supposed to be concerned? Whatever she gets, she deserves. Maybe her story will teach other far-left reporters that apologizing for Iran won't protect you, even in Iran.
And I'm really not too concerned about the fates of Laura Ling [propagandist Lisa Ling's sister] and Euna Lee. Who told them to go to North Korea? Who put a gun to Roxana Saberi's head ordering her to go to Iran?
All of them knew the risks about these countries, Iran and North Korea. Yet, they chose to go to these countries anyway. They aren't like some of the innocent people in those countries, who wish for human rights and want to leave but can't get out. These are women who went to dangerous places and are shocked--shocked!--when those dangerous places are exactly as dangerous as even your average naif knows. You play with snakes, you get bitten.
I won't give it a second thought if all three of them rot in jail forever. Sadly, their lives are "more important" than the lives of innocent victims of Iran and North Korea, those who didn't chose to go there but want to get out. And sadly, Saberi's, Ling's, and Lee's lives are getting more press coverage than anyone else's life--than any other of the many human rights hostages and victims of show trials in these countries--because they are liberal reporters for the mainstream media, which exalts its own members and their lives' values above you and me.
This is, incongruously, the most outrage--in fact, the only outrage--the mainstream media has had with anything Iran/Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and North Korea/Kim Jong-Il have ever done.
We're the little people. But these reporters who chose to risk their lives to, among other things, propagandize for Iran are the "important people."
No tears from me for these "reporters." They knew the risks. They assumed those risks. Now, they're whining about the very predictable results.
So sad, too bad.
Posted by Debbie on April 20, 2009 11:01 AM to Debbie Schlussel