TEHRAN – Western media has an old habit of oversimplifying and misrepresenting governments and political systems in other parts of the world, especially in Iran.

This tendency is rooted in long-held Western misconceptions about non-Western cultures and a need to rationalize Western dominance by portraying non-Western governments as inherently flawed and incapable. 

An article published by Reuters on July 18 was a perfect example of this lasting tradition. The article titled “how Iran's Khamenei elevated a little-known moderate to the presidency” claims that five people “with knowledge of the matter” informed Reuters about how the Leader of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei managed to raise voter turnout from an anticipated “13 percent” to the 50 percent participation rate recorded on the second round of the snap presidential elections on July 5th.

“When intelligence officials briefed Iran's supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei in May ahead of a snap presidential election, their report was grim: angered by economic hardship and crackdowns on social freedoms, most Iranians planned to boycott the vote and turnout would only be about 13%. That's when Khamenei decided to plan a carefully orchestrated election, setting the stage for a little-known but trusted moderate, Massoud Pezeshkian, to rise to the presidency in a race that would initially be dominated by hardliners, five people with knowledge of the matter told Reuters,” the article read. 

To discuss the article, we could deep dive and mention how quoting five unidentified sources means Reuters could pretty much be pulling information out of thin air; how unlikely it seems that five influential figures within the Iranian leadership would share sensitive information with a Western media outlet; and how there is no single evidence that suggests the late President Ebrahim Raisi could have been the successor to Ayatollah Khamenei. 

We could also point out that Reuters has a track record of lies. For example, in 2020, its initial report denied the Iranian attack on the American Ain al-Assad base in Iraq. In March 2022, Reuters alleged that Saudi energy facilities had been attacked from Iranian soil and not Yemen. In 2023, Reuters reported that Ayatollah Khamenei was displeased with Palestine's Hamas for not seeking counsel about Operation Al-Aqsa Storm, despite previously claiming that the October 7 operation happened after Iran’s “greenlight.” All these reports were written based on information provided by unidentified “knowledgeable” figures, similar to what was published on July 18.

But instead of focusing on specific segments of this article and similar ones published before, we will be focusing on the bigger picture and try to understand the modus operandi employed in drafting them.

Western media’s penchant for portraying Iran as simple, noncomplex, and dysfunctional

Western media coverage of the Iranian government and leadership usually has an underlying theme: everything in Iran is controlled by one person or entity and democratic processes don’t exist. Besides that, Western journalists usually portray Iran as simplistic, noncomplex, and dysfunctional. 

These two factors combined will make it easy to understand why Reuters felt the need to release a report based on information received from imaginary sources to undermine Iran's presidential elections. 

During the 2022 riots in Iran, at least some authorities in the West seemed to have come to the conclusion that the Islamic Republic was nearing its end. A previous exclusive report by the Tehran Times revealed that Washington had even come up with a 5-stage plan to topple the Iranian government, and was planning to recognize an “alternative government” similar to what it’s been doing against President Nicolas Maduro of Venezuela.

Once the unrest died down and things got under control, Western states decided that while their initial perception may have been wrong, the 2022 saga still dealt an unrepairable blow to the Iranian government. The Islamic Republic did not collapse in 2022, but that was the beginning of the end for it. 

So, when snap presidential elections are held two years later in less than 50 days and 50 percent of the eligible voters participate, how is Western media supposed to cover that? It turns to its good old habit of reducing the establishment to the plans and desires of a single figure. In the view of Western media outlets, the success of the snap vote in Iran does not mean the West had misunderstood the nature and reverberations of the 2022 riots. It means a single man had been plotting behind the scenes, and this man somehow managed to think of a plan that would drag 30 million people to the ballot box. And what was the plan? To allow a reformist figure to take part in the elections – something that’s happened in every presidential vote ever held in the country governed by reformists for a total of 32 years.