"Dear CNN, Please Check Twitter for News About Iran,"

[rainbow4321]

http://news.cnet.com/8301-17939_109-10264398-2.html

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.
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http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/dear_cnn_please_check_twitter_for_news_about_iran.php

The western world's most feared government is shaking with insurrection in the streets after a contested election and the leading name in news, CNN, is shockingly absent from the story. Twitter, meanwhile, is how Iranians are communicating with the outside world. It's the best place to follow events going on in that country and CNN's failure to engage with the story is one of the hottest topics of conversation there.

Hours after Iranian police began clashing with tens of thousands of people in the street, the top story on CNN.com remains peoples' confusion about the switch from analog TV signals.

One quip we've seen is that "Tienanmen + Twitter = Tehran." Twenty years ago this month, CNN brought live news about the Tienanmen Square uprising to the world. It's really strange that the network is absent from this story. CNN anchor and mega-Tweeter Rick Sanchez defensively Tweeted hours ago that he covered Iran throughout the afternoon on TV, so perhaps it's just the CNN.com web team that's incurring the wrath of news consumers. CNN's official Twitter account has been silent for four hours.

Political blog aggregator Memeorandum is all Iran right now and is a great place to get in-depth information. The BBC is covering the story well, we found this video posted to YouTube. It's being passed around Twitter. These photos on Flickr are good, too. This video from LiveLeak is quite moving, if likely to cause motion-sickness. Twitter search engine Twazzup has created a great aggregator page for real-time multi-media updates from and about Iran. Andrew Sullivan writes well about the extensive use of Twitter by Iranians in the uprising. There's a collection of Twitter accounts and other media from Iranians over at Reddit. This in a country where the government recently debated applying the death penalty for subversive blogging.

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http://memeorandum.com/

http://iran.twazzup.com/

http://www.irannegah.com/

[BlooInBloo]

1. Twitter tag: #CNNfail - 'nuff said.

[BlooInBloo]

2. hahha - Check out The Daily Beast article (found on #cnnfail search)

http://www.thedailybeast.com/blogs-and-stories/2009-06-14/harrowing-tweets-from-iran/

"After the election, protesters flocked to Twitter and their immediate coverage of the violence proved embarrassing to CNN, which was slow to catch up.

Plus, read more insight on Iran's election from other Daily Beast writers.

As protests raged in Iran this weekend after Mahmoud Ahmadinejad claimed victory in the presidential elections, the most up-to-date news was found not on major news networks, but rather on Twitter, where on-the-ground users continue to post updates from Iran. Violent protests, police brutality, and the use of tear gas at Tehran University were reported in 140-character updates. Meanwhile, CNN was slow to pick up on the story, which caused Twitterers to create the CNNFail search hashtag, where they complained about the network’s lack of coverage. Reports from the protests:"


And they wonder why they're going out of business.

[DrToast]

3. I would hope CNN has higher standards for sources than Twitter

Yeah, Twitter is a good source to hear EVERYTHING, but there's a lot of "noise" on there and you have no way of knowing what's true and what isn't.

[rainbow4321]

4. From an ABC twitter entry

I don't know who entered it, but it pretty much sums up CNN coverage..keep in mind the "10 hours ago" was during the time riot video and twitters were being blasted out of Iran onto the 'Net


http://twitter.com/jimsciuttoABC

Did CNN Intl really just air pix of a water-skiing squirrel? Anyone remember 'Ron Burgundy'?
about 10 hours ago from web

[PatSeg]

5. I gave up on CNN a long time ago

They are pretty much useless - all glitz and no substance.

[HopeOverFear]

6. If it's not Grandma Palin bloviating about Letterman, they're not interested

[OneGrassRoot]

7. Did any of the other cable news shows carry it? Just wondering...

why everyone was focused on CNN. Sorry if this is a stupid question.

[rainbow4321]

8. From what I can gather

Twitter users are wondering why it is that CNN has been able to cover things from the Middle East before (us bombing/invading Iraq, etc..) with live coverage (ANY coverage) yet they remain silent on the Iranian revolution going on.
Going by the twitter entries, out of all the MSM, BBS and NPR have given the best/most coverage of what is happening in Iraq. So people are seeing that and going "if those organizations can do it, why can't the rest?"
There are a small handful of "msnbcfail" and "foxnewsfail" twitter entries, but there have been sooo many "cnnfail" followers/commenters that it is, once again as of right now, back up in the top ten "twitter trends" list. Last night it was up to number 3 on that top ten most mentioned list.
Here is yet another online article questioning CNN's noncoverage:

http://tech.blorge.com/Structure:%20/2009/06/14/cnnfail-can-twitter-out-cover-cnn/

Many of us remember amazing CNN coverage as the bombs dropped in Iraq not many years ago. We watched as a small group of reporters got the news out from their hotel room in downtown Baghdad. How times have changed! This time, with important and explosive happenings in a different Middle Eastern country, CNN was almost entirely silent on the subject. Instead, it was Twitter that was filled with live alerts of the riots from all over Iran.

Cnn.com had no stories about the massive protests on behalf of Mir Hossein Mousavi all day on Saturday. Mousavi was reported to be the loser of the election by the Iranian government, who said he had lost to the sitting president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, according to a CNET story. This situation provoked unrest and led to widespread street clashes, something almost unheard of in tightly leashed Iran, reflecting popular Iranian public opinion that the election had been rigged.

(snip)

Twitter, while CNN was silent, was full of first-hand accounts from the front lines of the riots. Although Twitter seemed to be on the forefront of the news, there was also significant coverage from other media sources, from the BBC to NPR. That made the relative since of CNN on the story even more puzzling.

(snip)

Perhaps it is just that what was once rapid CNN coverage of events has been made to seem slow when we have thousands of amateur reporters Twittering from their cell phones. More likely, it is a combination of two things. There are a lot more Twitter users than CNN reporters, and they can be very vocal, as CNN has learned. At the same time, it is equally likely that CNN has been resting on its laurels for too long, and may want to start acting like the news-gathering organization that it once was.
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http://search.twitter.com/search?q=%23CNNfail

http://search.twitter.com/search?q=%23iranelection

http://search.twitter.com/search?q=Tehran

[OneGrassRoot]

9. Thank you so very much!

Thanks for taking the time to educate me. Much appreciated. :)