{"id":78750,"date":"2020-01-18T00:22:24","date_gmt":"2020-01-18T05:22:24","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/persian-heritage.com\/wordpress\/?p=78750"},"modified":"2020-01-18T00:22:24","modified_gmt":"2020-01-18T05:22:24","slug":"irans-state-tv-airs-apparent-prank-call-to-c-span-to-back-false-claims-of-us-casualties","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/PERSIAN-HERITAGE.COM\/en\/2020\/01\/18\/irans-state-tv-airs-apparent-prank-call-to-c-span-to-back-false-claims-of-us-casualties\/","title":{"rendered":"Iran\u2019s State TV Airs Apparent Prank Call to C-SPAN to Back False Claims of US Casualties"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>VOA &#8211; Iranian state TV has broadcast what appears to be a prank call to a U.S. television network to try to support false Iranian claims of heavy U.S. casualties in an Iranian missile attack on an Iraqi base last week. Several Iranian diaspora journalists tweeted a video clip of Thursday\u2019s broadcast by the Islamic Republic of Iran Broadcasting (IRIB) TV channel, whose presenter, Ali Zohourian, introduced a segment about Washington\u2019s purported \u201ccover-up of heavy losses\u201d from Iran\u2019s January 8 strike on the al-Asad base that houses U.S. and Iraqi forces.&nbsp; No U.S. or Iraqi forces were killed in the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) missile attack, which caused some damage to the base. Iran had given advance notice of the strike to Iraqi authorities, enabling the troops at the base to take cover. &nbsp;In the IRIB news segment, Zohourian said: \u201cEight days after the IRGC\u2019s missile slap on the (face of) the United States war machine, a father of a terrorist soldier of America admits in a telephone interview with (C-SPAN\u2019s) Washington Journal (program) that he has no information about his son\u2019s whereabouts since last week, and says his numerous pursuits of U.S. Defense Department officials bore no fruit.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><!--more-->Maziar Bahari, a journalist with the IranWire news site, was the first to tweet in English and share a clip of the IRIB news segment featuring an excerpt of U.S. TV network C-SPAN\u2019s Washington Journal show. Bahari noted that the man who called in to the C-SPAN show, claiming to be the father of a U.S. soldier who was at the al-Asad base when Iran attacked it, had a heavy Iranian accent and appeared to be pretending to cry.&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI don\u2019t know if he is alive or he is dead,\u201d the caller said in reference to his purported son, before cursing U.S. President Donald Trump.<\/p>\n<p>Several other Iranian diaspora journalists shared Bahari\u2019s assessment that the phone call to C-SPAN was bogus, including Hadi Nili of BBC Persian and Shayan Sardarizadeh of the BBC Monitoring service.<\/p>\n<p>The apparent prank call by the man who gave his name as Allan was made to the Wednesday edition&nbsp;of the&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.c-span.org\/video\/?468101-2\/washington-journal-news-headlines-viewer-calls&amp;start=2576\">Washington Journal program&nbsp;<\/a>hosted by U.S. journalist Greta Brawner. &nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>After listening to the call, Brawner offered sympathy to the man, saying, \u201cAllan, I&#8217;m so sorry for you, for what\u2019s happening with your family, not knowing what\u2019s happening to your son,\u201d before pivoting to another topic.&nbsp;&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe do not and cannot fact-check each call or assess its legitimacy,\u201d C-SPAN spokesman Howard Mortman told VOA Persian, in reference to calls made to Washington Journal\u2019s \u201cOpen Phones\u201d segment. &nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>He declined a direct response to the use of the C-SPAN content in an Iranian state TV news report promoting false claims of U.S. casualties in Iraq. &nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>In a phone interview with VOA Persian, BBC Monitoring journalist Sardarizadeh said Iranian state media outlets, including Fars, Tasnim and Khabar Online, had published a series of unsubstantiated claims of dozens to hundreds of U.S. troops being killed in the al-Asad base attack. He said the reports cited \u201cinformed IRGC sources,\u201d who purportedly received the information from other sources in Iraq.<\/p>\n<p>In one example of such reporting, IRIB TV journalist Ameneh Sadat Zabihpour tweeted the following message on January 9, a day after the Iranian missile strike: \u201cTrump\u2019s biggest challenge these days: hiding the bodies of U.S. troops. 270 dead&#8230; #Vengeance\u201d.<\/p>\n<p>At the same time that it was disseminating false reports of U.S. casualties, IRIB also echoed the Iranian government\u2019s initial denials that it had any direct role in the January 8 crash of a Ukrainian passenger jet shortly after it took off from Tehran. For three days after the crash, it reported Iranian officials\u2019 claims that mechanical problems likely caused the crash, until the government made a Saturday acknowledgement that Iranian forces shot down the plane, mistaking it for an enemy threat. &nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>The Iranian acknowledgement followed days of Western media reports citing Western intelligence agencies and officials as saying there was evidence of Iranian missile fire bringing down the plane.<\/p>\n<p>IRIB\u2019s broadcasting of the government\u2019s initial denials of responsibility for the plane crash, which killed all 176 people on board, has drawn criticism from other members of Iran\u2019s state-approved media and from university students who held anti-government rallies in Tehran and other cities in the past week. &nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>A Monday statement published by the&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.tpja.ir\/news\/item\/87-%D8%A8%DB%8C%D8%A7%D9%86%DB%8C%D9%87-%D8%A7%D9%86%D8%AC%D9%85%D9%86-%D8%B5%D9%86%D9%81%DB%8C-%D8%B1%D9%88%D8%B2%D9%86%D8%A7%D9%85%D9%87%E2%80%8C%D9%86%DA%AF%D8%A7%D8%B1%D8%A7%D9%86-%D8%A7%D8%B3%D8%AA%D8%A7%D9%86-%D8%AA%D9%87%D8%B1%D8%A7%D9%86-%D8%AF%D8%B1%D8%A8%D8%A7%D8%B1%D9%87-%D8%A7%D8%AA%D9%81%D8%A7%D9%82-%D8%AA%D8%A7%D8%B3%D9%81%E2%80%8C%D8%A8%D8%A7%D8%B1-%D8%B3%D9%82%D9%88%D8%B7-%D9%87%D9%88%D8%A7%D9%BE%DB%8C%D9%85%D8%A7%DB%8C-%D9%85%D8%B3%D8%A7%D9%81%D8%B1%D8%A8%D8%B1%DB%8C-%D9%88-%D8%B3%DB%8C%D8%A7%D8%B3%D8%AA-%D8%AE%D8%A8%D8%B1%DB%8C-%D8%B1%D8%B3%D8%A7%D9%86%D9%87%E2%80%8C%E2%80%8C%D9%87%D8%A7%DB%8C-%DA%A9%D8%B4%D9%88%D8%B1\">Tehran Province Journalists Association&nbsp;<\/a>said: \u201cThe publication of false information has had a severe impact on public confidence and public opinion, and more than ever shook the media\u2019s shaky position \u2026 IRIB television employees acknowledge that their credibility has been lost. It should be noted that other media outlets objected to the situation, but IRIB television (management) favored it. This incident showed that people cannot trust official data and journalists should try to fill this gap as much as possible.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>In a Tuesday protest at Tehran University, students assembled near the university\u2019s medical school chanted, \u201cOur state television is our disgrace.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Asked why IRIB broadcasted an apparently prank call to C-SPAN to support false claims of U.S. casualties after facing domestic criticism for its reporting of erroneous government denials of responsibility for the Ukrainian plane crash, Sardarizadeh, a former IRIB journalist, said the network\u2019s management is beholden to Iran\u2019s Islamist rulers.&nbsp;&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIRIB is so strategically important to the central message that the rulers in Tehran want to get out to their people, and the managers who run IRIB\u2019s news department are so close to the establishment and trusted by them, that they don\u2019t even care that what they are saying is ridiculous,\u201d Sardarizadeh said.&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThey believe they are in the front line of an onslaught against the Islamic Republic,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>VOA &#8211; Iranian state TV has broadcast what appears to be a prank call to a U.S. television network to try to support false Iranian claims of heavy U.S. casualties in an Iranian missile attack on an Iraqi base last week. Several Iranian diaspora journalists tweeted a video clip of Thursday\u2019s broadcast by the Islamic [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[20],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-78750","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-featured"],"translation":{"provider":"WPGlobus","version":"3.0.2","language":"en","enabled_languages":["fa","en"],"languages":{"fa":{"title":true,"content":true,"excerpt":false},"en":{"title":false,"content":false,"excerpt":false}}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/PERSIAN-HERITAGE.COM\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/78750","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/PERSIAN-HERITAGE.COM\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/PERSIAN-HERITAGE.COM\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/PERSIAN-HERITAGE.COM\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/PERSIAN-HERITAGE.COM\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=78750"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/PERSIAN-HERITAGE.COM\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/78750\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/PERSIAN-HERITAGE.COM\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=78750"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/PERSIAN-HERITAGE.COM\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=78750"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/PERSIAN-HERITAGE.COM\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=78750"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}