With low turnout and a surge in protest votes, hardliner Ebrahim Raisi is Iran’s new president. American media across the political spectrum acknowledge his history as a murderous butcher.
Summary
Elections in Iran produced a new president, Ebrahim Raisi, currently chief of Iran’s courts after his main opponent was ruled ineligible and unable to run.
- Turnout was purported to have been the lowest in decades after former Iran president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, called for boycotts after he and others were ruled ineligible.
- The election of “hardliner” Raisi is not expected to change the new status quo, as Saudi Arabia and Iran, typically foes, have started direct talks earlier this year.
- Before the election results were announced, the Biden administration made it clear it wanted the new/renegotiated/restarted Iran nuclear deal to be agreed upon and set in place before Raisi takes power in a few weeks.
- The New York Times’ coverage of the election framed the election of hard-line “conservative” Raisi, despite acknowledging the millions of protest votes and low turnout, as a rebuke of “moderate” Rouhani who “could only watch as [Trump] withdrew from the nuclear deal and reimposed sanctions in 2018.”
- ABC News came out swinging against Raisi, questioning his legitimacy with an election “marred by a low turnout” and noting Raisi’s “long list of alleged human rights violations.”
- CNN noted Raisi’s campaigning on anti-corruption stands in stark contrast with his history of “prosecution of Iran’s political prisoners” as part of a “four-person death panel” that executed 5,000 political prisoners.
- The Daily Caller highlighted the growing “dissatisfaction with the country’s Islamist regime” as 10% of all ballot returned were blank or had fake names as a protest of Iran’s ruling class.
- The Daily Wire also reported on the boycott of the elections among those whose loved ones have been killed by the Iranian regime during “popular uprisings in December 2017 and November 2019.”
- The Wall Street Journal’s editorial board turned their attention to the fact that the “Islamic Republic” is no republic at all, saying Guardian Council, who “culled dozens of candidates, including many ostensible centrists or reformers”, are part of the cabal who is really in charge of the country.
Author’s Take
It is refreshing to see media across the partisan landscape come to the universal acknowledgment of Iran’s troublesome at best, murderous and villainous at worst, government and lack of legitimate elections. However, without the ability to portray the Iranian regime as a foil for Trump, left-leaning outlets had little choice but to depict the ayatollahs and mullahs controlling Iran as the duplicitous murders they are.
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© Dallas Gerber, 2021
