SATISH SHARMA - not just Rotigraphy.: Was This Fakenews An Attempt To Get Khamenei Banned From Twitter?

moon of alabama

Yesterday Reuters issued this fake news story:

Top Iran leader posts Trump-like image with drone, vows revenge

DUBAI (Reuters) - The Twitter account of Iran's Supreme Leader on Friday carried the image of a golfer resembling former President Donald Trump apparently being targeted by a drone, vowing revenge over the killing of a top Iranian general in a U.S. drone attack.
The post carried the text of remarks by Ayatollah Ali Khamenei in December, in which he said "Revenge is certain", renewing a vow of vengeance ahead of the first anniversary of the killing of top military commander General Qassem Soleimani in the attack in Iraq.
...
There was no apparent immediate action by Twitter over the Persian-language tweet on Friday by Khamenei, Iran's highest authority. (https://twitter.com/khamenei_site/status/1352349195114569739?s=24)

The Twitter account @khamenei_site was never Ayatollah Khamenei's Twitter account or associated with him.

Those 886.605 people who follow Khamenei on English Twitter know that his real (English language) account is @khamenei_ir. He has also accounts that post in other languages but those are listed as official ones. @khamenei_site is not one of them.

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One wonders how the Reuters journos in Dubai could make such a 'mistake'. Was the intent to get Khamenei banned from Twitter? Israel has previously tried to achieve that.

Shortly after the Reuters story appeared Twitter banned the fake @khamenei_site account. This generated more fake news.

NPR still headlined the new information as if the deleted account had been related to Khamenei:

Twitter Bans Account Linked To Iran's Supreme Leader

Twitter permanently banned an account believed to be linked to Iran's supreme leader Friday after it posted a threatening image that included former President Donald Trump.
The account, @khamenei_site, was linked to Ayatollah Ali Khamenei's website, The Associated Press reported. And the same account had previously posted portions of Khamenei's speeches and official content. However, a Twitter spokesperson told the AP that the account was fake, without elaborating on how it determined that.

The fake account was not 'linked' to Khamenei's website. It at times re-posted items from Khamenei's site. But just because a Twitter account names itself @NYT_site and maybe reposts stories from the New York Times website does not mean that it is 'linked' to it.

How then can NPR claim that the account is 'linked' to Khamenei even after Twitter said that it was fake? And why isn't the headline saying that the account was fake?

The Twitter ban of the fake account led to dozens of additional fake-news headlines - here is just one from the Washington Times:

Twitter says Iran leader's tweet threatening Trump's death was a fake account

Well, if it was a fake account how can it have been an "Iran leader's tweet"?

CBSNews tried to have it both ways by putting the fake into doubt quotes:

Twitter bans "fake" account linked to Iran supreme leader after post seems to threaten Trump

This all again proves that journalistic precision is not cared about when the item of a report is a perceived U.S. enemy.

Aside from all that the picture that started the whole issue does indeed exists. It shows a golf playing Trump under the shadow of a drone.

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It is a Farsi language propaganda poster that was posted on Khamenei's Farsi language website. But it can not be found on any Twitter account related to him.

The use of such propaganda is not at all unusual. Last September a U.S. Air Force unit wore this badge during an amphibious assault maneuver that simulated an attack on a Chines islands in the South China Sea.