Viewers respond to our report on life in Iran

HARI SREENIVASAN: And now some of your thoughts about us -- comments we received from viewers like you after our broadcast last evening.

Not surprisingly, most of you wrote us about William Brangham's look at Iran from the inside-- a report that included images from inside a hospital, stores selling food and computers and a political dissident's home.

Arash Azadegan, an Iranian-American, complained that our report was "very shallow" and understated the damage American sanctions have done to the Iranian people.

He said, "Sanctions have raised the cost of living to the point that people have much less protein in their diet and children's nutrition is a concern."

But most of you praised the report which offered images of Iranian life rarely seen on American television.

Sharon Sevara called our piece

"…informative and well done. A bit different that the picture I had in my mind's eye about commerce in Iran."

Shelly Finney-Grantham said on Facebook that she would:
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"…love to see more -- in-depth -- stories about regular' people and families in Iran and how things are on a day to day basis for them. I personally see war and extremists a lot and would like to see the other side.

Reza Ghafouri replied:

“I'm Persian and it's the truth. What you see in the media isn't the truth about Iran and Iranians. It's all because of politics. Iranians are like other people in the world, friendly people who live in a peaceful way as you do.
Added Michael Sabo:

'They've got a lot more in common with us than most of the countries in the middle east. Wonder why that's never reported?”

On Twitter, we heard from Paul Hancock, who thought:

"Really fascinating. Shows how little you can know about anywhere before you actually get there."

Feel free to send us your thoughts either through the comment sections below our stories at newshour.pbs.org or on our Facebook page. Or tweet us back @NewsHour.

http://www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/world/jan-june14/viewers_01-26.html