Neil MacFarquhar has a discovery: Iran is seeking influence in Lebanon

The beauty about the work of Neil MacFarquhar is that it only gets worse with time and his journalistic standards--if any--only deteriorates further and further.  But he has topped himself here in this superficial and really flawed article on Iran seeking influence in Lebanon.  1) Of course, Iran is seeking influence in Lebanon as is the US and Saudi Arabia, among others. Where is the story and where the shock especially when Saudi Arabia and Iran are locked into an intense regional conflict that Saudi Arabia's Wahhabis have turned into a sectarian conflict.  There is no story there basically.  2) MacFarquhar wants to justify his non-story by saying that Iran has managed to spend all that money after the Syrian uprising and despite the sanctions.  Had he had done his research (and learned a foreign language or two in that process) he would have known that Iran spent that many prior to the imposition of the harsh sanctions. 3) Every political person that he spoke to in this article is a member of March 14.  Every single one of them.  It was hilarious that his expert on the matter was none other than Marwan Hamadi: one of the most corrupt personalities in Lebanon who is pro-Saudi/pro-US.  He was identified as a "leader" when he is the messenger and political servant of Walid Jumblat.  4) The people he spoke to in Tannurin were members of March 14 and they were people who had no shyness in advertising their racism against Iranians (and not only against the lousy Iranian regime).  This racism and sectarianism must have delighted Mr. MacFarquhar:  "“They are from a different religion, a different social condition.”".   The article concludes with a statement by the objective account of none other than the Saudi-funded Phalanges Party.  Lebanon is split on every single issue and MacFarquhar, writing a propaganda piece, wanted readers to conflate the pro-Saudi segment of the population with the entire country.