Comments on: Eruption of mass protest in Iran a non-story for corporate media

By: Ansel

Ansel — Tue, 16 Jun 2009 18:51:36 +0000

A warning, Jay: please avoid distortion and exaggeration. There were no “inconsistencies” in ReadWriteWeb’s story. Their update simply points out that CNN is finally giving the story the attention it deserves.

Taking CNN as an example – before writing the post I checked cnn.com several times through Friday and Saturday. Human-interest, domestic, even soft news stories were in the top spot, not the largest protests in Iran in years. Since my post on Saturday night Iran has miraculously been the top story every time I’ve checked. I think the message got through to CNN.

The issue is not just the number of stories or whether a given outlet did a story on the protests. It’s how far up on the page the story appeared. Not sure why you cite the BBC, I’m not talking about them.

By: Jay

Jay — Tue, 16 Jun 2009 18:05:35 +0000

I still don't understand the outrage. Maybe CNN could have produced a story more quickly online about the protests but this is certainly a story they were covering extensively. And apparently every other corporate media entity, including "news networks like the BBC, NPR, and the Times" was covering this. To ReadWriteWeb's credit they did post an update that pointed out inconsistencies in some of the stories they helped propagate.

By: Ansel

Ansel — Tue, 16 Jun 2009 02:07:50 +0000

Omar: I’m not exactly sure what you’re saying. I hope it’s clear that this post is generally sarcastic.

skinnychef: Sorry the video didn’t work for you, but it seems okay on my end. I don’t know of any solidarity events in Austin, unfortunately, but good question. The domestic anti-war/left fails to be relevant when it matters once again.

Jay: Ever the skeptic, huh? Check out this ReadWriteWeb post. Many bloggers have noticed the media’s lack of attention to the protests. I appreciate your smattering of links, but they don’t demonstrate much of anything. The election was on the 12th and the uprising only became a top story in most media on late Saturday and Sunday – probably in large part due to the ever-louder chorus of criticism in the blogosphere.

By: Jay

Jay — Mon, 15 Jun 2009 17:39:15 +0000

The protests were mentioned in all of the following stories: AP report on June 12th telling of potential for protests. FOXNews report on June 13th with mention of protests in the lead paragraph. June 13th report onCNN with a video link of the protests in Tehran. June 14th NY Times report with embedded MSNBC video covering the protests in Tehran. In all the corporate media I've come across, the Iran election and resulting protests have been pretty big stories. Maybe, I'm missing something?

By: skinnychef

skinnychef — Mon, 15 Jun 2009 15:23:02 +0000

hey palamino,
nice bumping into this story, thanks for posting. i have been following the situation as closely as possible. i am not sure, but it seems your video was disabled, so you may want to repost it, or save that kind ov video to another account. certainly iran is cracking down on journalists, and trying to supress the story as much as possible…
are there any actions surrounding this here in austin? i would love to filom, if there are.
thanks for posting!
xoxox
skinnychef

By: Iran and Democracy « Sleeping Jellyfish

Iran and Democracy « Sleeping Jellyfish — Sun, 14 Jun 2009 08:49:42 +0000

[...] a more pointed and sarcastic look at the situation, head to the Media Hacker, a 21-year-old independent journalist and wed developer from Texas. He recaps the last decade of [...]

By: Jonathan

Jonathan — Sun, 14 Jun 2009 06:31:44 +0000

Great post. I’ve heard pieces of this on the internet trade winds, but this was much more solid, and i like the white haired fellow towards the end of the video.

By: Omar

Omar — Sun, 14 Jun 2009 03:04:02 +0000

1):: “See, in a mature democracy like ours, we’d agree to put an end to the bitter election season. ”

2):: “The opposition concedes, and America moves on.”

3):: “But Iran is so backward and authoritarian.”

4):: “The opposition candidate is still contesting the results! Even the U.S. government is concerned with the integrity of the election.”

The quips in (1,2,3) are in my humble opinion, – immature, and do not meet generally accepted criterion for objective journalism, in a fact based story.

In Point 2, I’m afraid you’ve forgotten your recent United States History – did you live elsewhere for the huge Diebold Election debacle, re-count, etc ??

otherwise, write an Op Ed. Nice site by the way, I love the design. keep it up!

~Omar