'#CNNFail': Twitterverse slams network's Iran absence
While word of riots in the streets of Tehran spread like wildfire on Twitter, CNN stayed largely silent on the story, surprising and dismaying many.
(Credit: Twitter)As the Iranian election aftermath unfolded in Tehran--thousands of demonstrators took to the streets to express 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 belief 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.
Daniel Terdiman is a staff writer at CNET News covering games, Net culture, and everything in between. E-mail Daniel. 
Be careful who you call stupid since you're completely wrong. Read the article again, especially this part:
"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."
Fail
God is having some fun at the expense of the arrogant.
As for CNN, anything that's bad for Obama must not be reported, for as long as possible. It's bad for CNN business and doesn't align with Mr. Turner's political philosophy. When the protests were at full swing in Iran, CNN was busy peddling a story about how health care was destroying small businesses and how Obama's plan would save the day.
But the biggest story that's missing from the Twitterverse is the fact that Iranian elections, at the end of the day, mean nothing. Iran has no democracy. The "Supreme Leader" (Ali Khamenei) pre-approves every candidate for every significant office in Iran, including the presidency and every single member of the parliament.
It's a stacked deck. Whether the winner is Ahmadinejad or Moussavi, both men were approved-by and subservient-to Ali Khamenei and his "Guardian Council". Khamenei controls the military, the Iranian media, all communication facilities, and has the final say over any matters of the parliament (including absolute veto power over any legislative bill.)
In Iran, democracy is an illusion. Choice is an illusion.
That aside, if Ahmadinejad rigged the elections should have nothing to do with his "evil nuclear plans". He is just another wanna be dictator like Chavez, Kim Jong-il and, yes, George W. Bush (remember the ballot problem in his brother's controlled state Florida).
No doubt CNN has cut the same deal in Iran.
OOOhhhhh....just leave it for Crescent News Network to tell us what to think. more psyops.
This sword (psyops) cuts both ways.
People on the scene blogging / tweeting about what they see can be just as valid as any official news source in this day and age. Heck, in some cases, even more valid because it's not haunted by network bias.
HLN is now "Serial predator / Psycho Spouse Central" pretty much 24/7.
They don't do any real news much after 12pm (gotta wait for Oprah and the rest of the clones to finish).
Duh.
Funny how so many just aren't buying the hype anymore. Whatever is the second-smallest big cable media outlet to do?
Thank goodness you have Fox News to give you the facts and truth.
Obama IS evil. No question about that. His entire adust lufe was spent being mentored by America's biggest demestic terrorist ever, William Ayers, a guy who on the very morning of 9/11, did an interview in the New York times, saying his only regret was that he didn't bomb even more places, and kill even more Americans.
@ tclovescricket:" and proving there is a conspiracy to make him look good"
There IS a conspiray by the retarded mainstream meia to make the Obama empty suite, terrorist love,r look good. You got to be pretty naive if you can't even see that.
Not only did Ayers give an interview on Sept. 10, the day before the attacks, but he also was known to have met secretly several times with the hijackers like Mohammed Muretta. U libtards are gonna be sorry.
They did not care to monitor voting irregularities in the USA?
- by jtothef June 14, 2009 12:05 PM PDT
- "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..."
- Reply to this comment
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Showing 1 of 2 pages (54 Comments)actually, it's odd that cnn would be so late to this story because they had built their brand expectation of "being there" over the years with a history of images of anchors reporting from balcony's atop well branded hotels near predetermined bombing areas for both gulf wars, so that now a generation expects them be everywhere that news happens. that at least shows that they understand the requirement of being there." not sure what happened to that strategy.
nevertheless, it turns out they're not really a news outlet - just a pr one (like most)
no worries - it's the new socialism/collectivsm - get over news brands - "the people" report the news now