Lost in translation

Virginia Tilley summarizes the lost in translation campaign against Iran:

In this frightening mess in the Middle East, let's get one thing straight. Iran is not threatening Israel with destruction. Iran's president has not threatened any action against Israel. Over and over, we hear that Iran is clearly "committed to annihilating Israel" because the "mad" or "reckless" or "hard-line" President Ahmadinejad has repeatedly threatened to destroy Israel But every supposed quote, every supposed instance of his doing so, is wrong.

The media is serving as the anti-Honey for Ahmedinajad here. About 30 years ago, fictional Doonesbury character Uncle Duke was appointed Ambassador to China. Not speaking any Chinese, he was assigned a native Chinese translator, Honey Huan. Duke had a habit of making racist and inflammatory remarks which could easily have started World War III if Honey hadn't translated them into innocuous bureacratese. Honey's goal, aside from love-inspired devotion to Duke, was to prevent World War III. The current media's goal in mis-translating Ahmedinajad is exactly the opposite.

Sorry if you thought this was a review of the Bill Murray/Scarlett Johansson movie "Lost in Translation." Here's a brief review, just in case. Although I think Bill Murray is one of the funniest people alive and Scarlett Johansson one of the most beautiful, that movie sucked big time.