14 June 2009
The Iranian Revolution Will Not Be Televised
Posted by Connor under: Elections; Media .
At least not for now. If you want to get the skinny on the might-be-revolution you will need to get on the Internets.
In case you missed it, Iran had a presidential election on Friday. In Iran’s quasi-theocratic regieme the office of Presidnent is secondary to that of the Supreme (Religious) Leader, Ali Khameni, but does wield a lot of influence in economic and foreign policy. This is why Holocaust-denying, populist, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has been such a pain the ass. Not just anyone can run in Iran. All candidates have to be approved by the religious council. So, this year’s four-way race was between Ahmadinajad, and three other candidates all approved by the establishment. One candidate however, emerged as a “reform” candidate. Mir Hossein Mousavi promised more engagement with the West, more progressive economic policies and improvements for the lot of women in Iranian society.
Long story short: Mousavi’s movement gained momentum in the last days of the campaign. Come election day turnous was a massive 80%. People either in the Khameni camp or in the Republican Guard started to anticipate the massive defeat they were about to be handed. They got nervous. Instead of massaging the numbers, arranging for a runoff — In Iran, if one candidate does not get 50%+1 in the first round there is a runoff between the top two — or otherwise stealing the election with a modicum of subtlety and believability, they panicked and apparently just started making up huge landslide numbers for Ahmadinajad all over the country.
Just two hours after the polls closed late Friday night (after being held open extra hours to accommodate the insane turnout) the government declared Ahmadinajad the winner with 69 percent to Mousavi’s 29 percent. Such a naked fraud as this was over the line, even in Iran and predictably the streets of Tehran filled.
All day yesterday there was a steady dribble of news out of Iran. Mousavi under house arrest. Mousavi supporter, former president and member of the Supreme Expediency Council, Ayatollah Ali Akbar Hashemi-Rafsanjani resigned. Bloody protests in the streets. Web sites and phone texting blocked, but Twitter unacountably not. All through the day and into the night as one twitterer spoke:
ALL internet & mobile networks are cut. We ask everyone in Tehran to go onto their rooftops and shout ALAHO AKBAR in protest #IranElection.
And at 3:30 in the morning, Tehran rang to the cries of, “God is Great.”
Great stuff. This is the kind of thing that makes journalism careers.
Mainstream media coverage, especially the so-called 24 hour news networks — this story is tailor made for them — has been almost nonexistent. The old stalwarts are there of course. The NYT has excellent coverage on its blog, The Lede, along with the BBC and The Guardian.
But the real, up-to-the-minute stuff has been provided by native, Farsi-speaking blogs like that of the National Iranian-American Council and their blog as well as that of Andrew Sullivan and Juan Cole.
Above:A pro-Mousavi protester gives aid to a beleaguered Iranian riot policeman. Source: Getty Images, via The Atlantic Monthly.
Iran’s “Green Revolution” may well fizzle. The country has a seemingly endless capacity to eat its young. It ruthlessly put down student protests in 2003 and in 1995 and fed an entire generation into the meat grinder in its war with Iraq. But considering the huge strategic implications of these events, and the compelling visuals and overall storyline I am stunned that the TV and traditional media isn’t more all over this. But hey, its the weekend.
So, if things in Iran get really wierd and all of a sudden on Wednesday its all over the news and you are all like, “Where did that come from?” Just remember that the Internet has been working overtime while the rest of the media was sleeping.
Update:I originally wrote this up about 3 p.m Saturday afternoon. Since then, the regular news people have been trickling back into their offices and catching up. By Sunday morning, things are more what one would think the coverage levels would be like. Still, here’s your post of links to ongoing coeverage. The blogs listed above are probably still going to be the place to go to follow events in Iran.