Iranian Protests Now in their Sixth Day

With the Iranian protests now in their sixth day one wonders why Americans know so little about it?   Could it be that it has not come across your Social Stream?   It's a good thing that One Headline Day has you covered.    The NPR post below outlines all of the key players in the protests.   As to why Americans know so little about it, the Tablet post below makes the case that it is the American media's inability to cover such an event.

The Key Players In The Iran Protests

Greg Myre, Larry Kaplow

Iran's protests feature demonstrators upset with the country's lackluster economy and nearly four decades of rule by hard-line Islamic clerics.

Those are the basics, but there is much more behind this latest round of unrest.

Iran is a complicated place, marked by multiple factions all trying to pull the country in different directions.

There is one supreme cleric in charge. But there is also an elected president and robust political debate. While not a democracy, neither is Iran a dictatorship.

In addition, most foreign journalists are barred from the country and the Iran government has shut down some social media channels inside the country.

Here's a primer on some of the key players and what's at stake for them: <more>

Why Can’t the American Media Cover the Protests in Iran?

Lee Smith

As widespread anti-regime protests in Iran continue on into their third day, American news audiences are starting to wonder why the US media has devoted so little coverage to such dramatic—and possibly history-making—events. Ordinary people are taking their lives in their hands to voice their outrage at the crimes of an obscurantist regime that has repressed them since 1979, and which attacks and shoots them dead in the streets. So why aren’t the protests in Iran making headlines?

The short answer is that the American media is incapable of covering the story, because its resources and available story-lines for Iran reporting and expertise were shaped by two powerful official forces—the Islamic Republic of Iran, and the Obama White House. Without government minders providing them with story-lines and experts, American reporters are simply lost—and it shows. <more>

1 comment:

  1. I'm reminded of an SNL skit, with Dan Akroyd as the US Ambassador in Iran, John Belushi as the CIA man. This was weeks or months before the Embassy was taken over by supporters of the Ayatollah during Carter's presidency. Belushi runs into the Ambassador's office in his harried condition, "What's going on out there in the street?" -- "Isn't that your department?". CIA: "Where's your chauffeur, maybe he can tell us"

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