They don’t report Russia’s claims this way. They don’t report Iran’s claims this way.

And people can see it, which is why they don’t trust the media anymore.

Because Israel has a complete ban on reporters in Gaza, for example, there’s no way to corroborate or refute what Israel said. It’s newsworthy to repeat what Israel said, but you can’t blame the media when someone reads that and assumes that the government is telling the truth

If there’s no way to corroborate or refute what Israel said, don’t print what Israel said. Lies aren’t newsworthy, except as a way to report on the lies themselves for the purpose of debunking them.

Remember when Israel first started bombing hospitals and blamed Islamic Jihad for it? They still don’t claim responsibility for Al-Ahli Arab Hospital, but after a year of targeting hospitals and doctors it’s ridiculous to deny it at this point.

Yet there were few retractions or corrections. As far as CNN and The Guardian are concerned, Israel didn’t bomb that hospital. What a joke.

As you said yourself, the government lies all the time, so why would you assume that “the government said X happened” means that “X happened”.

I don’t think people make that assumption anymore, but that’s because people stopped trusting the media. They published and promoted so many government lies that they’ve destroyed their own credibility.

People expect the media to investigate government claims and to publish the truth, not just parrot the lies they’re fed. When the media doesn’t do that, when all the major news outlets become court stenographers, people lose faith in the media.

Maybe people are expecting too much, but that’s what people have been taught to expect. They were taught that journalists find the truth and report on it. They’re finding out that journalists basically just print what their sources say and they can’t just trust things because they’re in the news anymore.

And it’s going to get worse forever.

Nothing that has been demonstrated makes me think these chatbots should be allowed to rewrite human history what the fuck?!

I see what you’re saying here: if the media prints lies from a government it’s not the media lying, it’s the government. If Israel says Hamas beheaded 40 babies and that’s found out to be a lie, it wasn’t the media lying about Hamas beheading 40 babies and so the media is entirely innocent of printing the lies fed to it by a government like Israel.

Here’s the thing: if a government lies all the fucking time and the media keeps printing what the government claims anyway, then that makes them complicit in spreading the government’s lies. We all know Israel’s government spreads lies, so printing the lies it spread about Hamas is just doing the government’s work for them. The media doesn’t get to wash its hands of the things it prints just because it puts “Israel says” before the headline.

It’s literally the least you can do, less than literally anything else, and doing the least possible is not good enough.

You don’t get to wash your hands because you voted for Kodos. Has Harris even come out against bombing Iran?

Look at that, it’s working.

What’s working? Iran isn’t any more dependent on Russia than it was before the strikes.

I think you should look at a map sometime. Unless you are taking about Russia-China relations, but that doesn’t seem to be the context here.

There are just as many countries between Iran and Russia as there are between Iran and China, I don’t see why Iran would have to allow itself to be dependent on Russia when China is just as close. Granted, Russia and Iran border the Caspian Sea so they can access each others’ ports, but Iran also has ocean coast so it can access Chinese ports as well. In terms of raw numbers, Iran’s exports to China value $4.59B and imports value $10B. Trade with Russia, by comparison, is $1.9B. Total.

China is actually a closer economic partner with Iran than Russia is, so why wouldn’t Iran be able to turn to China?

Also, Iran is a founding member of the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank. Also also, Iran is an observer member of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation, and looks to be in the process to become a full member eventually.

Also also also, Taiwan condemned Iran’s strikes against Israel, so you know they’re tight with China lol

Jesus do you want me to write you an essay?

I will say they just entered a new 20-year bilateral trade and military cooperation treaty on Jan 17th of this year, which is hardly something Russia would do if they were willing to just destroy Iran in a few months. They did this because trade between the countries has risen sharply due to the sanctions against Russia, and that’s not going away any time soon so it would be foolish to sacrifice them at this stage. Then there’s the suspected missiles and drones that Iran has been (possibly) supplying Russia for its war with Ukraine, and blowing them up would disrupt that supply line.

But if you’re determined to believe Russia wants Iran to be bombed, I won’t be able to stop you.

And I’m saying there’s no way Putin wants Iran to be bombed, and so therefore this was done without his permission or knowledge.

Even conventional detonations on top of nuclear reactors or nuclear stockpiles?

So you think they’re stupid.

Belarus has basically been driven out of the European economy, but that’s hardly something Russia did. If Russia has become an empire and Belarus has lost its sovereignty it’s because Europe decided to force the issue. Bad move, I guess?

Or maybe Belarus and Russia are just allies and they’re working together like normal allies do.

Either way, comparing this to Iran is absurd! Iran has ten times the population. Plus, China is right there. It wouldn’t work.

Do you think Biden wouldn’t have done the exact same thing to “defend” Israel?

This is clearly about Israel and the long-time desire for war with Iran in the US government. Blaming Russia is, frankly, absurd.

Trump certainly would like to have Putin as a business buddy, he’s an 80’s deals guy after all, but there’s no business here that benefits Russia so that’s also absurd. Russia does not benefit from Iran’s collapse. This is very bad for Russia.

Only empires can have dependency, Russia isn’t nearly that strong. Russia needs allies or it will be overwhelmed.

If Iran gets their own nukes, one of Russia’s most important allies in the region is safe from attack. That seems a lot more useful than a “bargaining chip”. Now, Russia risks losing an important ally and whatever bargaining chip they may have had.

It told you why not! Because Iran is an important regional ally and business partner and military asset.

Russia sacrificing an ally like this for something as paltry as “gas prices” would be short-sighted in the extreme.

Although since you seem to think Russia is “nearly bankrupt” and that this only buys them “an extra year or two” that explains why you don’t think this matters.

What’s so fantastical about the US using a tactical nuke and then lying about it?

Looks like that didn’t happen here, but I see no reason that it couldn’t.

Iran is a major trade partner and an important partner in the Ukraine War and they were both important allies of Assad and worked closely together in Syria. They have deep ties. There’s no way the price of oil is worth losing one of their key allies in the region.

Netanyahu?

Although it’s not like Trump is some puppet on a string. The whole US government wants war with Iran and it has for my entire life. There doesn’t need to be some secret master behind this (Israel, Russia, whatever)

*immense relief*

…do you think Putin wants Iran to be bombed?