I LOVE IRAN (and other CBS bumper stickers)

I watched a love fest tonight. Some could call it a sensitive moment. Seeing two people experiencing such soft passion with hardly any touching could make the hair stand up on the back of the necks of most liberals and even some conservative wimps. I think I’ve seen this interview on the Today Show. Or was it The View (pre-Rosie)? Or maybe Oprah. There was so much affection it bordered on soft porn. But, no, it was a “60 Minutes” episode featuring Mike Wallace interviewing President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad of Iran.

Wallace made him come across as such a likeable, nice, regular kind of guy. Oh, how Mike wishes we could have a president like Mahmoud.

Sadly, Mahmoud looked much more media savvy than Wallace, the former looking relaxed and assured and the latter looking nervous and out of control, exhibiting horrible body language.

They laughed and giggled together like girls. Wallace was destroyed… out foxed, taken. Wallace was a pawn for Mahmoud’s propaganda machine. Mahmoud straight-up told Wallace what they were going to take about and when.

One of Mike’s idiotic softball questions was: “What do you think of George W. Bush?”

Ahmadinejad answered by reciting some statistics. He said one percent of the total population of the U.S. is in prison (although Bureau of Justice statistics say less than that), 20 percent are illiterate(U.S. Department of Education says 14 percent of adults are illiterate, though in Ahmadinejad’s part of the world there is an illiteracy rate of 19.8 percent for men and over 41 percent for women), 45 million without health insurance coverage. “That is very sad,” he said. His statistics went unchallenged by Wallace, a supposed journalist. No mention of, or questions by, Wallace about rights in Iran. Human rights abuses. Women stoned to death for immoral behavior. Death squads. Couples having their hands tied behind their back and thrown into pools to drown for holding hands in public. Nothing!

He was tougher earlier in the program with Vanessa Redgrave for her alleged anti-Semitism, than he was on Ahmadinejad, who says the holocaust was a fabrication and has repeatedly said that “Israel must be wiped off the face the map.” Wallace at times looked and sounded like he held contempt for Ms. Redgrave. Contempt most Americans would reserve for guys like the good president of Iran.

All and all it was a very pitiful (and embarrassing) moment in U.S. journalism.

JD.