Iran while saying a report in The New York Times that such talks have already been agreed to was wrong. The media coverage treated this talks offer by Obama as if it were something new. How soon we forget. Obama proposed bilateral talks in 2007 as a candidate and it was a major topic of the 2007-08 Democratic primary campaign. As president, Obama formalized the offer in his 2009 Now Ruz message to Iran. Iran brushed aside the offer and it was soon forgotten—so completely forgotten that many reporters thought the mention of it by Obama was some brand new imitative.