The global coronavirus pandemic has given some countries the opportunity to settle political scores with their opponents. There is no better example than the United States which has both directly and indirectly distributed corona-related fake news about its political enemies. RNA - US Secretary of State, Mike Pompeo, has provocatively labeled the COVID-19 disease the “Wuhan virus” in a malicious attempt to attribute blame for the outbreak to the Chinese government and people.
A similar dynamic is in play with respect to the Islamic Republic of Iran whose people have been disproportionately affected by the COVID-19 disease.
The US government not only refuses to take responsibility for aggravating the impact of COVID-19 on Iran – by maintaining its malicious sanctions regime which has led to medicinal shortages – but it has actually gone on the offensive by using the coronavirus outbreak to undermine Iran’s reputation.
To that end, the Washington Post ran an incendiary article on March 12, making the extraordinary claim that Iran was digging “vast” burial pits at the Behesht-e Masoumeh cemetery in Qom.
This article was just one of the successive incendiary and essentially fake news data-x-items the Washington Post has produced on the coronavirus outbreak in Iran.
Press TV has already comprehensively debunked Washington Post’s March 12 piece and has brought out its hyped reporting about the pits being “seen from space” – to create the false impression of mass graves – into sharp relief.
Indeed, astute observers have pointed out that the overall length of the purported 100 yards of “burial pits” in the satellite images cannot accommodate more than about 75-100 graves, which are not significantly higher than the official death toll announced for the city of Qom.