Watching the unrest in Iran can be depressing, and not just because of the sham election.
It's depressing to watch major news networks on cable dismiss the protests as riots, or prattle breathlessly about the so-called Twitter revolution.
For starters, the Democracy movement unfolding right now has been in the works for years.
Smart, sophisticated organizers have deftly and courageously merged the interests of numerous factions of a complex, nuanced society ... and all while evading the oppressive thumb of the theocratic rulers.
Anyone with a brain and some familiarity with organizing people at any level can appreciate the great skill, passion and determination of the organizers.
Yet, if you just watch the cable news, you'd think there was an election, some people woke up mad because their guy lost and, because of Twitter, they had a bunch of riots.
As if the cultural obliviousness isn't bad enough, there's more.
News corporations that have been cutting foreign bureaus and other journalistic areas of their operations are trying to present unfiltered, unverified, unvetted Tweets without context as an adequate replacement to reports from culturally literate, professionally trained and experienced journalists on the ground.
To rub more salt in the wound, they audaciously claim this style of news is necessary because the Iranian government has thrown reporters out of the country or placed them under house arrest.
Professional journalists have reported from Civil War battlefields, WWI trenches, produced live radio during the Blitz in London, delivered an iconic shot of marines raising the flag on Mt. Suribachi.
Yet we're told, by the styled and pressed studio anchors with million-dollar contracts paid for with the money saved by slashing foreign affairs coverage, that they can't manage to get professional journalists into Iran because the desperate figurehead of a crumbling regime doesn't like the news.
And we're expected to believe it.
I'm not suggesting that news organizations should ignore Tweets and Facebook updates.
I'm saying if they were really interested in delivering quality information they would maintain robust bureaus in places like the Middle East and employ culturally literate, trained journalists to analyze and interpret the information so it could be delivered with the context Americans need to form credible opinions and press for constructive solutions.
Wednesday, June 17, 2009
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