Fars News Agency
The Fars News Agency is a news agency in Iran managed by the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), one of the three branches of the Islamic Republic of Iran Armed Forces. While it describes itself as "Iran's leading independent news agency", it is widely described by Western news media to be a "semi-official" news agency of the Government of Iran. The Iran Disinformation Project calls Fars the "Spider Net of Lies and Deception" and the cornerstone of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps’ disinformation and propaganda campaign. Fars News’ disinformation campaign "reaches across Iran’s borders, spreading rumors and lies about dissidents, human rights, labor, political activists, and intellectuals." One propaganda technique is to consistently publish interviews with western pundits and analysts such as conspiracy theorist James Fetzer who echo Tehran’s propaganda.