Iason Athanasiadis, the journalist and photographer arrested in Tehran June 17th, has been released, it was reported today. He was said to have been the only non-Iranian among more than 40 journalists detained in the days of protest following the June 12th Iranian elections. Wire accounts quoted an Iranian official as saying Athanasiadis had been [...]

The Committee to Protect Journalists and other groups are issuing urgent appeals for the release of more than 40 journalists who have been arrested and are being held in Iran. Scant information about the arrests has been released. One of those being held is Iason Athanasiadis, a 2008 Nieman fellow who is said to have [...]

At the Knight-Ridder Washington Bureau, where I worked for a time, there was a photograph on the wall of my first bureau chief, the late and legendary newsman from Chicago, Ed Lahey, with his memorable words of advice: “Do not fawn upon the mighty.” That comes to mind when I read transcripts of presidential news [...]

Depending on whom you believe, Vice President Cheney may have already persuaded President Bush that the only effective way to check Iran’s political and nuclear ambitions is to launch a military attack sometime before the end of his term – maybe even very soon. Could members of Congress prevent that from happening? Not if all [...]

Legendary military correspondent George C. Wilson, writing in his “Forward Observer” column for CongressDaily, raises some essential questions that should be asked about launching an attack on Iran — “before,” as Wilson puts it, “it’s too late”: “How can you bomb anything nuclear in Iran without spewing radioactive debris into the atmosphere and poisoning it [...]

At a panel discussion I was on the other day about the state of mainstream political reporting, a member of the audience expressed concern over the credulous coverage of the administration’s overhyped warnings about the threat posed to America by Iran. MSNBC reporter David Shuster responded in part by saying that journalists have generally not [...]