For Iran Casualty Counts, Western Media Leaned Heavily on U.S.-Funded Iranian Rights Groups

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• geneva_convenience@lemmy.ml ⁨1⁩ ⁨week⁩ ago

  During the 12-day war between the U.S, Israel, and Iran, Western media relied heavily upon a U.S.-based “human rights organization” when it came to counting the dead from Israeli strikes, and classifying them as either civilian or military casualties.

  During the conflict, the group published civilian-to-military casualty ratios that consistently suggested impressive precision by Israeli forces, a precision called into question by emerging videos of Israeli strikes on civilian areas. Yet Drop Site could not find a single Western news outlet that disclosed the source of funding.

  That organization, according to its own website, is funded by the National Endowment for Democracy, which was created by Congress and is funded annually to be an arm of American foreign policy. The organization is called Human Rights Activists in Iran but is based in suburban Virginia.

  The AP referred to the group simply as “the Washington-based group Human Rights Activists,” while the BBC called them “a Washington-based human rights organisation that has long tracked Iran.” Time, France 24, the Wall Street Journal, Politico, the Washington Post, and dozens of other outlets relied on HRAI without disclosing its link to the US government.

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