7-Jul-12: Ayatollahs score spectacular own-goal

"Iran's public university": IRIB's weather presenter [Image Source]

In darkest Iran, the main government-controlled media outlet was called the National Iranian Radio and Television up until the so-called Islamic revolution of 1979. Its Wikipedia entry calls it "a giant Iranian corporation in control of radio and television which is among the largest media organizations in Asia and Pacific region". These days, it's known as Islamic Republic of Iran Broadcasting or IRIB for short, and describes itself as "a social necessity... IRIB serves to be the country's public university."

A report from an Arabic-language news channel indicates the Iranians, or at least some of them, are indeed getting educated. Al-Arabiya reports today that two opinion polls were unceremoniously trashed by the ayatullah-controlled ruling clique after the majority of the public responses showed strong dissent from Iran's aggressive headlong pursuit of nuclear capability. 


Turned out that 63% of respondents said they favored the suspension of Iran's uranium enrichment policies if this would bring their country a gradual easing of Western sanctions. Not exactly to the Ahmedinijad regime's taste, so the IRIB channel stopped the poll in midstream and replaced it with one that asked how respondents feel about the Iranian government's plans to close the Strait of Hormuz, the narrow waterway through which 20% of the world’s oil supplies pass. Embarrassingly for them, it turned out 89% of Iranian respondents opposed the closing of the Strait. The replacement poll was itself replaced with one concerning an Iranian soccer club. 

Al-Arabiya aptly termed this "a spectacular own goal". It's hard not to agree. It's also interesting to think about what the Iranians might choose to do if they somehow got free of the religiously-inspired lunacy that has brought their country to its current state.