One editorial called the one-day, closed door trial "a travesty."

The New York Times called on Iran to "end this dangerous farce" and free Roxana Saberi, the 31-year-old American-Iranian journalist recently sentenced to eight years in an Iranian prison on charges of spying for the United States.

The Committee to Protect Journalists is calling for her to be "released on bail."

Thousands have signed petitions calling on Iran to free Saberi.

Iran is hinting that Saberi's sentence could be reduced, but for now she remains behind bars.

Saberi, who worked as a freelancer for NPR and the BBC, among others, has become a political pawn.

Over at The Huffington Post, Gotham Chopra, the son of spiritual guru Deepak Chopra, says that the US has to make concessions and plant "karmic seeds" to secure the release of Saberi, along with Euna Lee and Laura Ling, two journalists being held by North Korea.

"Resolving Ms.’s Saberi, Lee, and Ling’s languishing travails would be the first step in illustrating that Iran, North Korea, and the US have the capability of resolving their differences, a critical process as we inch toward a brave new world where our economies, ecologies, and basic survival is inexorably tangled together," writes Chopra The Younger. " We have to solve these problems or we will soon have a single problem of planetary extinction, be it by nuclear detonation or some other unleashed fanaticism."

"To answer the immediate critics, yes it does involve the US extending itself beyond just finding middle ground," he continues. "It does mean making concessions and inevitably planting karmic seeds that run the risk of producing even more problems down the line. But that’s the role and risk a parent sometimes has to play with a child that acts out in an effort to get attention. It’s not stooping to their level. It’s just bending down to look them in the eye and let them know you’re taking them seriously. It’s the end that matters most, so let’s get creative with the means."

TPM takes a more grounded look at the case and predicts that Saberi will be freed soon after Iran's presidential election in mid-June.