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Harrowing Tweets from Iran
Ben Curtis / AP Photo
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:
monstris: Govt buildings being smashed, police batoning protesters, tear gas, rocks...head wounds all around Tehran. #IranElections
Mohamadreza: Tehran is dark, cold tonight, I can hear screams. scary #iranelection
Ghafari: aho tear gas fired around alJazeera office in Tehran, heard on Ghassan's program now, and they will not report that! #Iranelections
Ghafari: Ghassan BenJedou is in Tehran, car sirens are in the background.alJazeera will not broadcast the whole picture fearing of closing the bureau
jimsciuttoABC: #Iran police confiscated our camera and videotapes. We are shooting protests and police violence on our cellphones
mythary: Just talked to my team in Iran. mobile&TV network, most internet sites are all down.. Riots all over near TV station & vanak as ADJ speaks
TehranBureau: Between 50-100 dead Police on motorcycles beating ppl drive by attacking women #iran – TehranBureau for updates http://ow.ly/dVQB
Change_for_Iran: according to rumor mousavi requested all people to gather near his office at 12:30 pm today.
TehranBureau: @Change_for_Iran this is a trap! if you dont believe me then check with mousavi sites. order is to hold back till word. pls RT
Shahrzadmo: SMS still doesnt work. Twitter, facebook, friendfeed, filtered.BBC filtered
Mohamadreza: Mohsen Mirdamadi,Saeed ShariAti,Abdollah RamezanZadeh,Zohreh Aghajari & Behzad Nabavi are arrested. (not officially confirmed) #iranelection
Change_for_Iran: tear gas #iranelection
Change_for_Iran: my eyes are burning hard to keep them open #iranelection
Change_for_Iran: I'm dizzy but ok. some people are getting shelter in the nearby unfinished bank building. police arresting a middle aged man
Today CNNSaeed: CNN producer hit by police baton as officers try to disperse 200 stone-throwing protesters. Will be on air on CNNI at 6 ET #iranelection
y_shar: I'm sorry I can't tweet anymore it's 3:40AM in Tehran and I'm exhausted and heart-broken. Hope tomorrow things'll get better. Good Night.
#CNNFail
jimsciuttoABC: Did CNN Intl really just air pix of a water-skiing squirrel? Anyone remember 'Ron Burgundy'?
SpaceyG: Oh look! CNN now showing a pro-Ahmadinejad rally! #cnnfail Man, that was some deal they cut.
TehranBureau: It's too bad CNN's cameras are focused on the staged sham, while protesters being brutally beaten (and God knows what) elsewhere.
MarietteEusebia: #iranelection CNN Int. is covering Afghanistan while people hit the streets and clash in Teheran... #CNNfail again...crazy!
zelewsky: Have Ahmadinejad and his henchmen shut down the CNN studio in Atlanta? CNN seems happy to funnel propaganda and report little. #cnnfail
oronhaus: RT @Roebot: RT @dtatusko: .@CNN isn't even tweeting it????!!!!! wtf? #cnnfail #iranelection
Ktoropin: Amanpour just questioned Ahmadinejad at his presser. I don't see FNC reporters there. Less whining about #CNNfail might be in order
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boatscain2003
As someone who was following it on twitter at the time it was happening, the article really doesn't do the whole situation justice. It was pretty heart-wrenching to read even if only in 140 characters. They kept going, and going. And we kept their accounts going. The western really dropped the ball on this in a shameful way.
Here's an account by someone who watched the situation develop.
http://is.gd/11mUy
squiggy
I see that CNN is covering for the Ayatollah as they did for Sadam. Think we will ever get the other side from them?
drthomasho
I have aggregated Twitter accounts at: http://www.netvibes.com/iranelection
with mobile version at:
winksite.mobi/iran/election
exploora
I think this tweeting is really something.
I remember years ago, I was chatting to a young man in Belgrade who just got a new linux computer and he was letting me log into his computer so I could look around and play a new game with him, and suddenly his bedroom window broke because of the impact of a military airplane, and he said the sound of the plane was deafening, he thought he was going to get bombed by mistake.
It effected him, he was never the same.
People could say it was just a broken window. No it wasn't. It was the fear of getting bombed by mistake.
Of course it is heart wrenching, but if the Beast admitted that, then they would be accused of not being objective.
This is the best site that I know of. It is casual, it has articles of every different subject you can imagine, often written by famous writers, and even articles of things you can't imagine written by new upcoming writers, and it is free.
I have no idea how they make money to keep this thing going, but it is the best site I know of.
Josh-Narins
That was why Dear Raed was so powerful. Apparently, they knew it took 6 hours for the B-52s to leave London and get to their city.
http://dear_raed.blogspot.com/2003/03/as-usual-diane-comes-to-rescue-is. html
quick2no
It is a great day for democracy. I never thought I'd see it in Iran, that the youth would rise up and take to the streets to protest a rigged election. Dinner Jacket and the Ayatollah K have been sent a message.
Josh-Narins
50-100 dead policemen on motorcycles?
jalili5
yes, that is the problem with all this non-sense....it's just nonsense. Are people getting a beat down, yes. But there has been so many flat out lies. TehranBureau for instance is a laugh. The site was just registered last year to some guy in northern California.
Official sounding name, but doesn't instill a lot of confidence that what they say is true, yet it's all over Twitter spewing unsubstantiated nonsense.
Nobody is mentioning that polls leading up to the election had Ahmadinejad up by a wide margin, instead it's stolen election, beatings, deaths, fire, destruction, boom, bam, pow.
Let's see the facts rather than sensationalist exaggerations.
slyersly123
Right!
cbt650
i read it as 50-100 dead, policemen on motorcycles...
slyersly123
Keep on trying. You are a strong people and their are so many of you.
We here in the USA are behind you. Although I don't know what we can do. We will pray for you.
Thank you.
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