NBC’s Curry to Ahmadinejad: ‘Why Do You Work So Hard?’
Monday's NBC Today featured co-host Ann Curry live in Tehran doing a fawning “day in the life” profile of Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. At one point, Curry noted the dictator's “grueling schedule” and wondered: “What is your primary motivation, as president? Why do you work so hard?” [ Audio available here ] From beginning to end, Curry's report sounded more like propaganda on Iranian state television rather than a legitimate news story. She sympathetically declared: “A hard-driving schedule is the norm his aides say, claiming he sleeps just three hours a night and that his days often stretch to 2:00 a.m. They say even Iran's supreme leader has advised him to sleep more.” The segment began with her describing how “After his 5 a.m. prayers,” Ahmadinejad can be seen “Jogging with his security team, at times seemingly 'Rocky' style, before sunrise.” And how later, “He reaches his spacious but simple office before 7 a.m., there he works without shoes, but at 54, with reading glasses. First up, scanning local newspapers and briefs, including what western media are reporting.” Curry touted: “Ahmadinejad has visited each province at least three times and every city in each province….we land at remote Korizan Province, near the border of Turkmenistan. In this poor border town he first stops at a bazaar, meeting local artisans. Speaking to some, even in everyday English.” She later observed the Iranian President “showing a compassionate side,” meeting with an elderly man who lost three sons in the Iran-Iraq war, and remarked: “perhaps trying to remake his image at home and abroad.”
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on September 12, 2011. Filed under