living in another universe
This is what I kept thinking this weekend: if I wasn’t online, an avid blogger and reader of blogs, and if I didn’t frequent the New York Times, I wouldn’t know a damn thing about the phenomenon in Iran. It would feel like just any other story from the “crazy Middle East.” I wouldn’t have seen images of the streets of green-clad protestors. I wouldn’t have seen the beatings or the fires or read the twitter feeds or the first hand accounts. I wouldn’t have seen the youtube videos. And lest it be forgotten, the news most people receive if they receive any at all is from their televisions.
I don’t have television, but I was at the gym this weekend and flipped through all the channels and literally there was almost nothing to be found. There were talking-heads opining. There was Bill Kristol on Fox, doing the whole Kristol song and dance. The only place I could find it was at the Dish where Andrew et al have been doing what can only be described as brilliant coverage, and at some other blogs and sites like Juan Cole or Michael Totten (including the NYTs).
Here’s what irks me to no end, though. I “watch” this all go down via the blogs and youtube and it is gripping. It’s emotional – or at least I feel emotional watching it. It’s surprising and dramatic and frightening and hopeful. It’s, as they say, great TV, only it’s not on TV. You can find it only in soundbites and under the veil of talk-shows, or confined to the small segments the networks were able to devote to it. But this is the sort of news that should be on all day. [Read more →]
June 15, 2009 12 Comments
