Iran has denounced the latest report detailing its denial of the most fundamental human rights under its blood-soaked Sharia legal system. The report details the widespread executions of homosexuals and religious dissidents in the country in the name of Islam as well as the denial of basic free speech and association rights. The country executes people by stoning, hanging, and even crucifixion. Mohammad Javad Larijani, chief of human rights in Iran’s government, responded by calling such human rights as a Western invention and lifestyle choice. What is truly shocking is not that the troglodytes in Iran cling to their medieval system but that various countries stepped forward to praise or defend it, including Bahrain, Bangladesh, Belarus, Sudan, Syria, Vietnam, Venezuela, Yemen and Zimbabwe. Once again, the endorsement of Venezuela of the most abusive regime in the world shows the plunge of that country’s values in the Chavez and post-Chavez administrations. Notably, this report came shortly after the hanging of Reyhaneh Jabbari and shortly before the imprisonment of Ghoncheh Ghavami
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Fascinating book out by NPR media reporter, David Folkenflik, entitled Murdoch’s World: The Last of the Old Media Empires that explores the strange world of publisher Rupert Murdoch. Gobbler of such English-speaking newspapers as The News of The World, The Sun, The Wall Street Journal, and The Times, Murdoch is mostly known for his media collaboration with Roger Ailes in the development and promotion of Fox News, the Right’s mouthpiece of choice. Until his inglorious dismount from credibility in the London Phone Hacking scandal where a Murdoch newspaper employee was convicted of hacking the telephone voice mails of murdered British teenager, Milly Dowler, Murdoch had personified all that is unseemly about tabloid journalism. The personification of Charles Foster Kane, Murdoch fed the Right the red meat of dissention blending news with opinion and relying on practices that were criticized by honest journalists (even conservative ones) around the world calling it right-leaning tabloidism (