By Ceasefire Bites

In the midst of the relentless onslaught of war-warmongering hysteria (also known as “the news”) dished out by most of the mainstream media on the subject of Iran, it is often useful to pay attention to the stories swimming against the current, beneath the foaming surface.

For instance, take the unnervingly cool-headed story broken by MSNBC today, which reports:

“Deadly attacks on Iranian nuclear scientists are being carried out by an Iranian dissident group that is financed, trained and armed by Israel’s secret service, U.S. officials tell NBC News, confirming charges leveled by Iran’s leaders.

The group, the People’s Mujahedin of Iran, has long been designated as a terrorist group by the United States, accused of killing American servicemen and contractors in the 1970s and supporting the takeover of the U.S. Embassy in Tehran before breaking with the Iranian mullahs in 1980.

U.S. officials, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the Obama administration is aware of the assassination campaign but has no direct involvement.”

A deeply, deeply cynical observer (which we at CFHQ – thankfully – are not) might be tempted to point out that when Iran was accused of a much milder version of this same crime, in the so called “Saudi Ambassador Assassination Plot” the mere possibility of a hint of a link, however tenuous, between the Iranians and any dubious characters on US soil was considered, by most of the media, to be reason enough to lavish wall-to-wall, cover-to-cover amounts of breathless speculation, always with a generous topping of unbridled jingoism.

Will today’s rather damning story get an equivalent treatment? We predict not, alas. Not only is it the wrong “shape” to fit into the framing du jour, it features no redeeming echoes of Football managers resigning or videos of cats sneezing in a very very cute way.

Our prediction: business as usual. The party line about a “dangerous Iran” attacking and threatening its neighbours shall continue its residency on our screens, in HD and Dolby surround sound, and if you don’t like it… Oh look! A pigeon saved by a monkey!

Ceasefire Bites is Ceasefire's news and opinion blog.