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Tell PBS, NPR: No proof Iran has a nuclear weapons program

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Publicly-financed media PBS and NPR have promoted, as if they were known fact, claims that Iran has a nuclear weapons program, even though no proof has been advanced that Iran has a nuclear weapons program. Even Defense Secretary Panetta says, "Are they trying to develop a nuclear weapon? No."

Join us in calling on PBS and NPR to correct their reporting by emailing their corrections and ombudsmen.

Note: To contact the NPR ombudsman, copy the text below for NPR corrections. Then go to NPR's contact form to submit your complaint.

UPDATE: NPR and PBS respond.

Email PBS's NewsHour

Subject:

Your Letter:

As Fairness & Accuracy in Reporting has noted, on Monday, PBS NewsHour selectively edited Defense Secretary Panetta's comments on Sunday's Face the Nation to exclude his statement that Iran is not trying to develop a nuclear weapon. NewsHour then used his comments to try to suggest the opposite: that Iran is pursuing a nuclear weapon:

"PBS's Dishonest Iran Edit," Peter Hart, Fairness & Accuracy in Reporting, 01/10/2012, http://www.fair.org/blog/2012/01/10/pbss-dishonest-iran-edit/

The Washington Post Ombudsman Patrick Pexton and New York Times' Public Editor Arthur Brisbane have recently written that they agreed with the complaints of readers that the papers overstated the case by claiming that Iran has a nuclear weapons program:

"Getting ahead of the facts on Iran," Patrick Pexton, Washington Post, December 9, 2011, http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/getting-ahead-of-the-facts-on-iran/2011/12/07/gIQAAvvCjO_story.html

"Times errors: Iran’s nukes, SF’s voting," Arthur S. Brisbane, New York Times, January 10, 2012,
http://publiceditor.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/01/10/times-errors-irans-nukes-sfs-voting/

I urge you to correct reporting that claims that Iran has a nuclear weapons program and to take steps to prevent its recurrence.

Corrections, PBS's NewsHour

Michael Getler

Ombudsman, PBS

Email NPR's Weekend Edition

Subject:

Your Letter:

On NPR's Weekend Edition Sunday, reporter Tom Gjelten said, "The goal for the U.S. and its allies … [is] to convince Iran to give up a nuclear weapons program," thereby implying that Iran already has a nuclear weapons program, which is not a known fact.

"U.S., Iran Play Economic Knockdown," Tom Gjelten, NPR, January 8, 2012

http://www.npr.org/2012/01/08/144837625/u-s-iran-playing-economic-knockdown