Kiss of Death: Jailed Iranian dissident is hailed by Bush

I am leery of quoting anything from the New York Post, though I do link to news articles in my Above the Fold section. They always seem more of an East Coast National Enquirer or Green Onion without the intellectual wit than real news.

But this caught my eye. So I offer it with reservations with respect to the source:

BIANCA THE TORTURE EXPERT

I had been trying for months to persuade the Western media to take an interest in Ganji, a former Khomeinist revolutionary who is now campaigning for human rights and democracy. But we never got anywhere because of one small hitch: President Bush had spoken publicly in support of Ganji and called for his immediate release.

And that, as far as a good part of the Western media is concerned, amounts to a kiss of death. How could newspapers that portray Bush as the world's biggest "violator of human rights" endorse his call in favor of Ganji?

To overcome that difficulty, some of Ganji's friends had tried to persuade him to make a few anti-American, more specifically anti-Bush, pronouncements so that the Western media could adopt him as a "hero-martyr."

Would Ganji adopt a similar tactic in order to get media attention in the West? The answer came last January and it was a firm no.

The article goes on to explain that Ganji was recently honored by the Foreign Press Association, but Iran wouldn't even allow his wife to leave the country to accept.

But then things went pear-shape as a petite middle-aged lady dressed all in black was invited to come on stage to make a symbolic offer of the award to an absent Ganji. (The mullahs had not even allowed Ganji's wife to travel to London to attend the occasion.)

The lady in question was introduced as one Bianca Jagger, whose title is UNICEF Ambassador. What her day job is, however, is a mystery to me.

Bianca, it seems, then proceeded to do what Ganji refused to do.

And they say there is no bias in MainStream Media.