Relatively moderate.

Journalese of the Day:

A Law of Journalese requires political leaders to be labelled according to the opinion of the reporter and editor. A striking example was in a Washington Post story, July 17, 2017, about Iran’s President Hassan Rouhani’s brother’s being arrested for “unspecified financial crimes.” The story reported: “Sunday’s developments came less than two months after the relatively moderate Rouhani beat a hard-line opponent to win reelection, running on a promise of greater engagement with the West.

Relatively moderate? Relative to which moderates? Genghis Kahn? Osama bin Laden? Saddam Hussein? Moammar Khadafy? Just to name a few butchers in Iran’s neighborhood. Rouhani wins this Post label despite being the leader of a nation that ranks world’s second place in executions, numbers of which are so high that even the United Nations Human Rights Council, which rarely criticizes an Islamic or leftist dictatorship, has noted it. (China holds first place.)

File under: Opinion in the guise of news.

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Contact: BobSkole@aol.com