Guardian report on NBC interview with Iran’s president omits Holocaust remarks

The Guardian’s Washington Bureau Chief, Dan Roberts, penned a 500 word report today based on an exclusive NBC interview last week with the new Iranian president, Hassan Rouhani.  Here’s the headline:

headline

The following few opening passages provides a good sense of the message being advanced by Roberts in his Sept. 19 report:

Iran‘s new president Hassan Rouhani has told an American television audience he is hopeful of a diplomatic breakthrough over Tehran’s nuclear weapons programme, insisting his country had no intention of developing weapons of mass destruction.

Speaking before a crucial visit to the United Nations in New York, Rouhani claimed his government had “full power and authority” from Iran’s supreme leader to negotiate over the nuclear programme, which the US fears is close to creating a bomb.

“The problem won’t be from our side,” said Rouhani in his first interview with western journalists since coming to power. “We have sufficient political latitude to solve this problem.”

“Under no circumstances would we seek any weapons of mass destruction, including nuclear weapons, nor will we ever,” he added in initial clips of the interview with NBC aired on Wednesday night

The rest of Roberts’ story similarly conveyed the message of a new “moderate” Iranian president seeking reconciliation with the West. There was nothing in the report to suggest to readers that Rouhani so much as mentioned Israel or touched on the Holocaust denial of his predecessor, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. 

Interestingly, however, here’s the headline at the nbcnews.com report detailing the interview (with NBC’s Ann Curry), which Roberts linked to his Guardian report: 

headline

Here are the first few paragraphs:

Iranian President Hassan Rouhani blamed Israel for causing “injustice to the people” of the Middle East during an exclusive interview with NBC News in which he also called for peace, saying Iran is not “looking for war.”

Unlike his predecessor Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, Rouhani struck a moderate tone on many issues, but he deflected a question from NBC News’ Ann Curry about whether he believed that the Holocaust was “a myth.”

I’m not a historian. I’m a politician,” he replied. “What is important for us is that the countries of the region and the people grow closer to each other, and that they are able to prevent aggression and injustice.”

NBC also noted this:

Rouhani described Israel as “an occupier and usurper government” that “does injustice to the people of the region, and has brought instability to the region, with its warmongering policies.

Hassan Rouhani, in addition to characterizing Israel as a warmongering country which destabilizes the region, refused to give his opinion on the “question” of whether the murder of six million Jews ever happened by explaining that he’s not really a historian but, rather, a politician.

Dan Roberts, in cherry picking parts of the interview consistent with the desired narrative, and omitting the Iranian president’s demonization of Israel and refusal to acknowledge that the Holocaust occurred, demonstrates that he’s not really a journalist but, rather, a Guardian Left propagandist.    

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