Western officials seized on a dubious death toll of 30,000 protesters to escalate against Iran. The number originates with a single, clearly compromised source. But a zealously pro-war Guardian reporter is doing her best to legitimize it. The claim of “30,000 killed” during two days of protests and rioting across Iran appears to be based largely on a single anonymous source, who admitted extrapolating that figure by assuming without evidence that “officially registered deaths related to the crackdown likely represent […]
Several current and former staff at this propaganda medium either work or have worked also for Russian propganda media like RT and Sputnik: Anya Parampil, Alex Rubinstein (the latter has been arrested during Trump’s first inauguration protests in 2017 in the U.S.), Kit Klarenberg, Mohamed Elmaazi, Dan Cohen, Rania Khalek and Jeremy Loffredo (see also here).
Some of these guys also work or have worked for the Kremlin.
Regarding the topic it is noteworthy that according to reports based on leaked documents, now Gray Zone managing editor Wyatt Reed received funding from Iranian broadcaster for “occasional contributions to its programming in 2020 and 2021” while he was working as a correspondent for Russia’s Sputnik news outlet.
And this is only a tiny sample of what you can tell about this medium that stands very close to authoritarian states.