British columnist Oliver Kamm on Iran's Press TV:
But the corrosive aspect of this station is not so much the idiosyncrasies of its production as the seriousness with which it advances the most disreputable of fringe causes.
On its website, Press TV carries a preposterous article by astronomer Nicholas Kollerstrom, who was exposed last year as a Holocaust denier. Kollerstrom purports to demonstrate that “the alleged massacre of Jewish people by gassing during World War II was scientifically impossible”.
And it is clear where the station stands. “The West punishes people for their scientific research on Holocaust,” runs the introduction to his piece. “But the same Western countries allow insults to prophets and religious beliefs.”
Press TV has excelled itself by running a story that no reputable news outlet had reported: a supposed CIA study predicting the collapse of Israel within 20 years. The only authority cited for this study was “international lawyer Franklin Lamb”. Lamb is a political activist described by Hizbollah’s TV station in Lebanon as “persistent in his support for the just cause of the Lebanese people’s resistance”.
Kollerstrom's pseudo-research, plus frequent appearances of neo-Nazi Lady Michelle Renouf, were the primary reasons HonestReporting boycotted Press TV's invitation for a panel discussion on media bias.
