Iran Story Stirs Things Up

By: Brian Montopoli
Topics: In The News

(CBS/AP)

Here we go. The National Post in Canada has published a story claiming that the Iranian parliament has passed a law "that would require the country's Jews and Christians to wear coloured badges to identify them and other religious minorities as non-Muslims." The story is sourced to "Iranian expatriates living in Canada."

So far, at least MSNBC and Fox News Channel have mentioned the story, and it has been the dominant story of the day in the blogosphere. Right now, mid-afternoon, many news outlets are in a scramble to find out if it is true. The Iranian embassy has denied it, and Mohammad Mohammadi, press officer at the Iranian mission to United Nations, told CBS News Radio the story is "completely untrue."

The Drudge Report has had a link to the story at the top of its page all day. CBSNews.com has not mentioned it. "It's potentially an explosive story but we won't touch it until we have some sort of concrete confirmation, and we haven't come close to that," says Dan Collins, senior producer for CBSNews.com.

CBS News Radio has also decided against running the story, according to Exective Producer Charlie Kaye. "There are too many red flags here," he says. "The best we can determine is this has originated with Iranian dissidents in Canada. We have spoken to a CBS News correspondent just back from Iran and her producer, we've spoken to the Iranian mission to the UN, we've spoken to our State Department Reporter Charlie Wolfson, and at this point we're not comfortable putting it on the radio." The story has run on WCBS 880 local radio news here in New York, however.

Stay tuned.

Brian Montopoli
Brian Montopoli is the senior political reporter at CBSNews.com.
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by mattcat25 May 20, 2006 7:32 PM EDT: I believe that the United States (Bush divided states) should enact a law that all non-English Speaking People should be made to wear a badge signifying so. And, all Bush supporters must wear propeller caps.; Reply to this comment


by alphaa10-2009 May 20, 2006 5:33 AM EDT: This is the quandry that makes news editors go grey overnight. There is a seeming core of truth to the story-- it fits all too well with Ahmadinejad's "in-your-face" posture to use every insult possible to play to the cheering crowds at home. Yet, in light of recent experience with expatriates with an axe to grind (Ahmed Chalabi comes to mind), it would be premature to hoist this story. Certain Iranian expatriates would be delighted to see hostilities between Bush and Iran, and their incentive to plant such a story is much too obvious without independent corroboration.; Reply to this comment


by history_mike May 20, 2006 12:29 AM EDT: Agreed about the responsible journalism demonstrated by CBS. My hope is that other media outlets who jumped on this wholly discredited story do the right thing and print retractions: http://historymike.blogspot.com/2006/05/drudge-report-duped-by-iran-badges.html; Reply to this comment


by memekiller May 19, 2006 9:19 PM EDT: It's good to see responsible journalism going on. Gives me hope an infrastructure is being put in place to prevent the next Swift Boat Vet meme from becoming common knowledge before it's had a chance to be verified. I expect to see these sorts of rumors run on FOX, but MSNBC has egg on their face. Actually, I expect this sort of thing from MSNBC, too. With the new breathless, every-rumor-as-it's-whispered cable news environment, I think places like CBS should be the place to go to get the story right. If you want unsubstantiated innuendo, go to the cable gossip rags, who are kind of the electronic equivelant of Star and National Enquirer. But you turn to the outlets with credibility to figure out what the facts are (like 60 Minutes). You're not on 24 hours a day, where the story evolves in real time. I tune in at 6 to find out what we actually know right now, and where the holes still are.; Reply to this comment


by peterbaldwin-2009 May 19, 2006 8:53 PM EDT: Right story; wrong country. The Italian politburo passed the badge requirement for all midget trannsexuals and whirling dervishes.; Reply to this comment