ThinkProgress, or not

While Bush was President, the news media spin was that Iran's nuke program was not a threat and the only true threat was Bush's war mongering. The wikeleaks document dump this week made clear that Arab governments recognized the threat, were not convinced by the spin that Iran had stopped nuclear development, and were even stronger supporters of military action to stop Iran that Bush was. Naturally, the left has to push back and here is ThinkProgress' spin:

So, how much substance is there to ThinkProgress' claim that Arabs urged restraint? Their first example is Syrian President Bashar Asad. ThinkProgress neglects to mention that Syria is a client state of Iran and Assad could not afford to say anything other the Iranian line. Their next example is Oman. I looked up Oman in Wikipedia and the that the government there is the government there because of "the intervention of Iranian Imperial ground forces." In other words, it is not really an independent state either.

ThinkProgress has an impact that is not limited by the weakness of its arguments. VerumSerum has shown how MSNBC can use it as a "credible source" and, thus, report ThinkProgress' articles as objective "news" instead of just left/liberal talking points.

PREVIOUSLY on Iran:
•Obama and the Iranian freedom protests
• Obama angers Iran
• Web censorship debate in Iran
• Al Qaeda breaks with Iran
•Iran, Venezuela, and international crime
• Bollinger's delusion and the madness of liberals
•Iran holds hostage 15 British sailors
•Liberals, denial, and Iranian nuclear ambitions
•Jimmy Carter's legacy: a radical Iran