Posted on 06/14/2009 3:29:38 AM PDT by angkor
As the Iranian election aftermath unfolded in Tehran--thousands of demonstrators took to the streets to protest their anger at perceived electoral irregularities--an unexpected hashtag began to explode through the Twitterverse: "CNNFail."
Even as Twitter became the best source for rapid fire news developments from the front lines of the riots in Tehran, a growing number of users of the microblogging service were incredulous at the near total lack of coverage of the story on CNN, a network that cut its teeth with on-the-spot reporting from the Middle East.
For most of Saturday, Cnn.com had no stories about the massive protests on behalf of Mir Hossein Mousavi, who was reported by the Iranian government to have lost to the sitting president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. The widespread street clashes--nearly unheard of in the tightly-controlled Iran--reflected popular sentiment that the election had been rigged, a sentiment that was even echoed, to some extent, by the U.S. government Saturday.
"The Obama administration is determined to press on with efforts to engage the Iranian government," The New York Times cited senior officials as having said Saturday, "despite misgivings about irregularities in the re-election of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad."
Yet even as word of the urban strife, seemingly led by those posting to Twitter, spread next around the world on news networks like the BBC, NPR and the Times, CNN remained mostly mute. Even when the network's Internet site finally posted a story late Saturday, the network's first "story highlight" was, "Ahmadinejad plans rally after winning second presidential term."
Increasingly, Twitter has become the go-to source for breaking news about any kind of notable event, be it an earthquake, terrorist attacks in Mumbai, or post-election riots in Tehran. Yet many Twitter users found CNN's lack of attention to what could end up being one of the biggest stories in years appalling.
"CNN just loops the same stories endlessly, while ignoring the biggest story," posted Twitter user MediaButcher.
"CNN needs to talk about the important things like Ms. California and who Paris Hilton is (sleeping with)," wrote Twitter user ArchivalQuality.
Others used the opportunity to applaud the work of other networks while indirectly criticizing CNN. "Might I point out to all of those tracking #CNNFail that there's a corresponding #NPRWin good coverage @ www.npr.org," opined Twitter user Nickbernstein, referring to the Twitter convention of using "hashtags," or pound-signs before keywords to indicate Twitter search terms, in this case a reference to the suggestion that NPR had done a good job covering the Iranian riots.
And it wasn't long before word of CNN's theoretical reporting failure began to make its way into more established media. Under the headline, "Dear CNN, Please Check Twitter for News About Iran," the popular blog, ReadWriteWeb, blasted the network for its failure to cover the clearly massive story in the Middle East.
"Hours after Iranian police began clashing with tens of thousands of people in the street," ReadWriteWeb wrote late Saturday night, "the top story on CNN.com remains peoples' confusion about the switch from analog TV signals."
It's odd that CNN would be so late to this story, especially given the criticism it's getting from the Twitterverse, and given how clued in the network is supposed to be to Twitter. It was, after all, only two months ago that CNN's Twitter account barely missed out--to actor Ashton Kutcher--on being the first to accumulate a million followers.
One would think, then, that when the idea began to percolate around Twitter that CNN was missing out on a major, historical story like the one developing in Iran, the network would have noted the discontent and done something about it.
But even as the sun prepared to rise in the eastern United States, CNN's Web site was still focusing on Ahmadinejad's victory and not the fact that massive riots in the streets of Tehran might be a world-changing moment, potentially on par with the failed 1991 coup in the Soviet Union that led to the collapse of the authoritarian government there.
To be sure, it's too early to tell if the events unfolding in Terhan will have such a lasting effect. But in Iran, there haven't been such vivid pictures of popular anger at the government since the revolution there in 1979 that toppled the Shah and led to the current religious fundamentalist leadership.
And to the thousands on Twitter posting to the #CNNFail thread, this story should be a no-brainer for the network that managed to have the only reporters on the ground when the United States began bombing Baghdad in 1991 at the beginning of the Gulf War.
The BBC website prominently featured the protests yesterday
and early today.
The arrests are now the lead world news story there.
Great post. Thanks, and thanks for the links.
CNN figures they get brownie points from 0bama for ignoring Amedinejad’s victory. Because 0bama claimed he could move the Muslim masses and influenced the Iranians to vote for “the moderate”
Snort. No, it's not.
Unbefreakinglievable.
Nuthin' like robust debate....
Absolutely. Recall how all the Big 0 had to do during the election was make a passing reference to how much further ahead he would be without them and FNC toned things down from there on in.
"Radical Right-Wing Iranian Conservatives are the sore losers as the vast majority of the enlightened population reelected reformist and moderate Mahmoud Ahmadinejad "
"Jimmie Carter has declared the election one of the most fair and democratic he's ever seen"
"Dear Leader Obamah wishes the Iranian Leader all the wisdom and strength in dealing with the issues before him as he spoke in Arabic to our Iranian friend -- 'asa lama lakum '"
twitter BUMP! Lot’s of good (compiling fast) information to get up to speed.
If you keep up with the Twitter feed http://search.twitter.com/search?q=%23IranElection you’ll see that the protests are ongoing and massive.
AmaDingDong’s press conference is a complete denial of the reality in Tehran, which is that the election is a farce and people are PO’d.
AmaDingDong repeatedly (almost evert question) mentioned that “foreign powers” were causing all the problems and protests and disruptions.
He said it so often that it became apparent that he’s scared.
The comments are so-so, but the links to other articles and media are nearly realtime and invaluable.
In FireFox you just right click on any of those embedded TinyURL links (e.g., http://bit.ly/43zREX) and select “Open Link In New Tab/Window”.
Ok- now this is downright funny.
CNN is now (and has been) playing live, without commercials, the press conference by MadMood!!! I think they got the message.
What a HOOT!
Heh, heh, heh! Careful, after all CNN is the hard news network unlike those rightwingnuts at Faux or the leftwingers at MSNBC. If CNN doesn’t cover it, it’s not hard news.
I was relegated to watching it on Al Jazeera!
But AmaDingDong is such a bloviating and half-insane nitwit that I finally bailed out.
Not odd at all when you realize they are covering Bozo's butt. Bozo wanted Mousavi to win so he could claim credit for "changing" things in Iran with his "wonderful" Cairo speech. Instead Imanutjob won(not really)by a huge amount, making Bozo look stupid. To top that off Bozo also was rambling about how he had(obviously, what a self centered jerk)caused them to have meaningful debate over the issues.
A full blown riot isn't "debate", it is a riot and shows just how f***ed up Iran is. Also the violence that the Iranian government is using to quell the riots can't be shown, no, no, no. CNN can't allow that, people might get the idea that Imanutjob and the Mullahs, as well as other Islamic extremists are violent a**hats.
It is just more proof that the left wing media is determined to cover only those things which make the left and muslims look good. It didn't work however, since Fox and BBC(some of whose reporters were arrested and attacked)and thousands of Iranian twitter users were sending out videos, photos and text about the riots.
To be fair he said that before the election results were in, what makes that statement so stupid is he thought Mousavi would win and that he(Bozo)could claim credit for it. He looks totally stupid over these remarks and has remained silent except for a few stupid comments from his minions.
goto twitter. Last I read over 100 reformists were arrested. They police set a trap last night, telling people that Mousavi would lead a march at 12:30(Iranian time)and people were to meet at a certain point. When people got on buses and went there they were arrested. Nice, huh?
I don’t get it. Didn’t the mullahs pick all of the “candidates”?. Mousavi, Ahmahdangnutjob...what’s the diff?? As for the protests, that’s like protesting you got Hitler instead of Mussolini. I can understanding Iranians protesting. They’ve got a lot to be furious about. But are they protesting the fact that their election was a crock, or that they didn’t get the despot of their choice? Color me confused.
In theory, a more open and free society would eventually back down from a more aggressive foreign policy, so Mousavi is better for us in the long term. But he's no angel; he's a thug bastard from way back, with a long bloody history within the government.
So, the differences are cosmetic in the short term, but may be pronounced in the long term.
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