Iran is a victim of constant black propaganda http://www.veteranstoday.com/2011/09/05/iran-is-a-victim-of-constant-black-propaganda/

First of all, it is hard to expect fair and balanced coverage by the corporate, mainstream media, where the main concern is profit and audience-satisfaction at any cost. Often, truth and complexity are the first casualties in the Darwinian media business model. However, when it comes to Iran, there are two aspects to the mainstream media’ coverage: 1) Because of the West’s deep-seated ‘orientalist’ approach, non-Western societies, especially those in the Middle East, have been portrayed as the ‘other’. The post-colonialist literature reveals how this ‘other’ has been painted as exotic, pre-modern, barbaric, and devoid of all the beautiful and admirable values embedded in the superior western cosmos.

2) Geo-strategic and ideological factors have created sufficient incentives for both Western governments as well as a wide array of institutions – from the media to the civil society – to ‘demonize’ nations, which are perceived to be opposing West’s political, cultural, and economic interests.Iran represents a country that has rejected a wide range of Western models and values in favor of a uniquely indigenous political model, which is supposedly closer to the true spirit of the Iranian nation. Iran has also been American’s major adversary in the Middle East. Iran has not only rejected neo-liberal market-economics, but it has also rejected liberal democracy as the foundation of its society.

Therefore, the Iranian model is an antithesis, alternative to many established Western models of governance and lifestyles.Since the 1979 revolution, Iran has been a major victim of constant black propaganda, where only a handful of foreign people, mostly from the epistemic community and liberal circles, have a true knowledge of the complexities and nuances of the Iranian society. Political differences and the relative isolation of Iran have also prevented constant and deepening social and cultural exchange between scholars and people from Iran, on one hand, and Western individuals, on the other.

Crediting Iran’s achievements does not only create psychological dissonance for the Western audience – given pre-conceived negative perceptions of Iran – but it also contradicts the official line of many Western governments, which seek to either weaken Iran or totally change it. Therefore, for many media installations it is more business-friendly and politically convenient to stick to the ‘established line’, where Iran is portrayed as some backward, irrational, and aggressive country opposed to fundamental values of a supposedly universally accepted Western model. A combination of ingrained and systematic ignorance, on one hand, and deep political interests in isolating Iran, on the other,

has reinforced and sustained efforts at constant discrediting and criticism of Iran. Therefore, despite Iran’s impressive achievements in the realm of socio-economic and scientific development, very few people have a balanced view of Iran.