"Down With" = "Death To" media translation of Iran Parade Slogan?

Question

It's interesting that banners carrying the arabic slogans "Death To USA" and "Death To Isreal" in Iran's recent military parade are being translated as "Down With" by the mainstream media. WHY?

Answer 1

Well, the banners are actually in Farsi. The people of Iran are Persians, not Arabs. But, this isn't the first bit of mis-translation carried out by the U.S. media. I recall, after U.S. Secretary of State James Baker and Iraqi Foreign Secretary Tarik Aziz met in Geneva to try and avert what became known as the First Gulf War, the U.S. media guy asked Aziz if war was going to be avoided. Aziz replied: "Imshallah". The U.S. media translated it as "God knows", which made Aziz sound none too optimistic. But, the true translation should have been "God willing", which is a much more hopeful reply.
I know of only one western journalist who speaks Farsi and that's CNN's Christian Amanpour. During the combat-intensive phase of Operation Iraqi Freedom there was only one reporter in country who spoke Arabic and that was Frank Gardner of the BBC. Don't expect anything but cultural and linguistic ignorance from the maintstream media.

Answer 2

Apologists try to minimize the "faults" of their proteges.