REAL-TIME CRITICISM OF CNN'S IRAN COVERAGE
By Brian Stelter
New York Times
June 14, 2009
Original LinkCable news normally serves as the front line for breaking news, but the channels largely took the weekend off as Tehran exploded in protests after Iran’s presidential election.
The performance of the American cable news, especially CNN, spawned an online protest by thousands on Saturday and Sunday, showing that viewers can try to pressure news organizations about their coverage in real time via the Internet. Fox News Channel and MSNBC also were said to have covered the protests in limited ways.
Protesters’ comments on Twitter were quickly noticed by CNN, which defended its coverage. The social networking blog Mashable said Twitter was acting as a “media watchdog.”
CNN had reports from Tehran throughout Saturday, including some from Christiane Amanpour, its chief international correspondent. But it did not provide the kind of wall-to-wall coverage that some had expected.
It was a departure for CNN, known for its breaking news coverage, including its celebrated reporting during the Tiananmen Square crackdown 20 years ago. But the Tehran protests were not covered with rolling live coverage for hours at a time.
Untold thousands used the label “CNNfail” on Twitter to vent their frustrations. Steve LaBate, an Atlanta resident, said on Twitter, “Why aren’t you covering this with everything you’ve got?” About the same time, CNN was showing a repeat of Larry King’s interview of the stars of the “American Chopper” show. For a time, new criticisms were being added on Twitter at least once a second.
Andrew Sullivan, a blogger for The Atlantic, wrote, “There’s a reason the MSM is in trouble,” using the blogosphere abbreviation for mainstream media.
CNN said, “We share people’s expectations of CNN and have delivered far more coverage of the Iranian election and aftermath than any other network.”
Journalists in Tehran were working in difficult and sometimes dangerous conditions. The BBC said its correspondent John Simpson and a camera operator had been briefly arrested after filming in the streets. Jim Sciutto, an ABC News correspondent in Tehran, said that the police had confiscated a camera and footage. “We are shooting protests and police violence on our cellphones,” he wrote on Twitter.
Some Americans relied on British networks. A report from Channel 4 was spread widely on the Internet. In the video, the correspondent Lindsey Hilsum said of Iran, “I feel like I went to sleep in one country and woke up in another.”
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RELATED LINKS:
'#CNNFAIL': TWITTERVERSE SLAMS NETWORK'S IRAN ABSENCE
By Daniel Terdiman
CNet
June 14, 2009
http://news.cnet.com/8301-17939_109-10264398-2.htmlCNN FAIL:
http://cnnfail.com/COMPREHENSIVE, UP-TO-THE-SECOND COVERAGE
OF ALL ASPECTS OF IRANIAN PROTESTS VIA MULTIPLE TWITTER FEEDS:
http://iran.twazzup.com/FOR SECOND-BY-SECOND UPDATES ON IRAN, GO HERE:
http://search.twitter.com/ and enter #iranelection