Thread by @benjaminja

This @nytimes piece by @ddknyt is a prime example of how mainstream US media is failing us in its coverage of the Trump-induced crisis we now find ourselves in with #Iran nytimes.com/2019/07/08/wor… 1/9

The piece purports to explain, as the headline suggests, "how the nuclear deal started to unravel." But in doing so, the piece makes many false and misleading assertions, seems to justify Trump's actions, and paints Iran in the most negative way possible. 2/9

First, the piece states that the b/c of the #IranDeal, "Iran for the first time won the right to enrich at least a limited amount of uranium to at least a low level." This is false. Iran "won" that right when it ratified the NPT in 1970. 3/9
iranprimer.usip.org/resource/timel…

Further, by claiming the Iran deal codified Iran's right to enrich essentially relays Trump admin's false claims that Iran must adhere to some made up long standing "international standard" that it not enrich uranium. 4/9

Next, the piece just takes Trump's criticism of the deal at face value which it then sets up to justify his "maximum pressure" response. At no point does the piece say that Trump "violated" the Iran deal or that it was working. 5/9

Then, in a section on how Iran might respond to Trump's policy, the piece just assumes that Iran wants to build a nuclear weapon, comparing it to Pakistan. 6/9

The piece then suggests that it is Iran raising the risk of military confrontation, not Trump, who started this whole mess to begin with. 7/9

And finally, this awful piece enters the realm of the absurd by quoting Mark Dubowitz (and no one else) and identifying him only as a "critic" of the Iran deal, and head of FDD, which it says is just a "Washington group." 8/9

This is a ridiculously comical portrayal of Dubowitz. He and FDD have been gunning for regime change & war for years. This is journalistic malpractice to the highest degree. The @nytimes should be ashamed for publishing such garbage. 9/9 lobelog.com/why-do-mainstr…