Question

Rick Steves is a charming and interesting travel writer, who also does hugely popular travel shows for NPR.  His most recent show is a one hour travel special about Iran.  My question for you:  Is it morally wrong for an American travel writer to promote Iran?  And is it morally wrong for a show promoting travel to Iran to appear on PBS?  And is it morally wrong to watch that show, even if you weren’t planning on traveling there?

Alternate view:  Is it a good thing for us to get to know more about Iran and the Iranians, so is it a good thing that Steves made this show and that PBS broadcast it?  And should we be watching it?

If it helps, here are Steves’ own goals in making the show, as well as a little information about the identity of the UN organization that sponsored the trip:

“Travel writers love to help Americans understand other places,” Steves said when I interviewed him this week. “And if there’s a place we don’t understand, it’s Iran. It’s pathetic how little we know about it: the hostage crisis and the name Khomeini.” (In November 1979, more than 50 U.S. Embassy employees were taken hostage and held for 444 days when student supporters of Iranian politician and religious leader Ayatollah Khomeini took over in Tehran.)

Steves said he was invited by a U.S. chapter of the United Nations Assn. to help foster American understanding of Iran. “The only thing I could think of with impact was to go there and make a TV show. It’s more difficult to kill people when you know them,” he said, referring to political tension between the Bush administration and Iran.

[snip]

Steves said his hope with the Iran segment was to help Americans “enjoy a rich and fascinating culture, get to know a nation that’s a leader in its corner of the world, and has been for 2,500 years, and to better understand the 70 million people who call Iran home.”

I’m very interested in your take on this subject.