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5 Things You Missed While Obsessing Over Michael Jackson
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While America has been caught up in Michael Jackson’s death in recent days, Iran's government launched further crackdowns and stonewalled on the vote recount. Here are five big stories you may have missed while watching YouTube videos of MJ’s Super Bowl performance.
It’s hardly surprising that the death of the biggest pop sensation of his time set off a tidal wave of news coverage around the world, but Michael Jackson’s passing has also had the side effect of pushing the previous big story, Iran, into the background.
On Monday, Iranian officials announced they had completed a partial recount of a random sample of 10 percent of the ballots in the June election. The results? No irregularities of any kind.
In fact, in the news vacuum the Iranian government continued its efforts to suppress the protests: Recent developments include a standoff with the British government over its embassy employees, a clash between protesters and riot police, and a major ruling by Iranian officials on the election results.
Some national-security experts have warned that the media’s shift away from Iran could have serious consequences for the opposition movement there, as international news coverage could play a role in limiting violence against protesters.
Here’s a look at some of the major stories there that may have fallen through the cracks since Thursday.
1. Iran vs. the U.K.
For whatever reason, the U.K. has been the top scapegoat for Iranian hard-liners since the election, beating out even the Great Satan itself, the United States. But what was previously a war of words escalated on Sunday, when the Iranian government detained nine local workers at the British Embassy in Tehran, a move the British foreign secretary, David Miliband, derided as “harassment and intimidation” that would draw a “strong and collective response” from the European Union. Iran’s intelligence chief told Iranian reporters that Britain colluded with the arrested workers as part of a scheme to “escalate the riots.” Since the initial arrests, however, the Iranian government says it has released five of the nine detained workers.
2. The Results Are In
Doubling down on Ayatollah Ali Khamenei’s claims that the election was legitimate, Iran’s Guardian Council, the country’s top legislative body, announced Friday that there was no chance of another vote being held, the protesters’ central demand. Just to rub it in, the officials added that the election was in fact the “healthiest” since the 1979 revolution. On Monday, Iranian officials announced they had completed a partial recount of a random sample of 10 percent of the ballots in the June election. The results? No irregularities of any kind. While the United States has avoided accusing the Iranian government of stealing the election outright, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton made it clear that the recount effort wasn’t fooling anybody, either. “They have a huge credibility gap with their own people as to the election process,” Clinton told reporters in Washington. “And I don’t think that’s going to disappear by any finding of a limited review of a relatively small number of ballots.”
3. New Protests, New Violence
A crackdown by the Iranian government on election demonstrations has reduced the amount of public opposition, but protesters are still defying the regime by taking to the streets. On Sunday, witness reports indicated that up to 3,000 protesters gathered near Tehran’s Ghoba Mosque, where they clashed with riot police who lobbed tear gas and beat demonstrators with clubs. Some protesters even accused police of attacking an elderly woman. The incident was the first major protest since Wednesday, when police quickly put down small groups of demonstrators near parliament. In another disturbing development that could prove a sign of things to come, a top Iranian cleric called for protesters who defy the government’s warnings to be executed.
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Those poor Iranians. They have a much larger fundamentalist/conservative populace than we do. The progressive community will have heavy lifting to do. Imagine the U.S. with a 60% majority following the likes of Pat Robertson to the letter? Horrors.
Joymars, But that is changing now.Although the fundamentalist populace still a significant number, but now nearly outnumbered by the younger, pro-western, educated and progressive 20-30 year-olds who make up almost 70% of the country...the so called children of the revolution.I always feard that this generation would be totally brainwashed by the regime...but they proved otherwise!Thanks to the age of satellites, internet and SMS.
"They have a much larger fundamentalist/conservative populace than we do."
Eh, maybe. Remember, 70% of their population is under 30.
Those poor Iranians is right but %60 of them don't follow conservatives that's why you see millions of people protesting and many taking bullets for the cause.
Very helpful. Thank you.
It's up to the kids... they have yet begun to fight. The estabishment is sitting on a timebomb.
GO KIDS GO!
Dear Mr Benjamin Sarlin,
I agree that every event you mentioned in this article are highly important ones. But your title about "obsessing" about Micheal Jackson not only shows poor taste, but also reflects the highly condescending attitude that many Daily Beast writers have.
Nobody undermines the events that have happened all over the world. But the death of Michael Jackson deserves more than arrogance of this kind. I'm sure your message would have been as powerful, if not more, if you had found a more innovative and less condescending title. I will be happy to provide some alternatives if you so desire.
Cordially,
Bhamini
I thought the title was absolutely fitting. For nearly five days now the major news networks have reported practically nothing except for Michael Jackson videos and minute by minute coverage of his family's grief [even following their request for privacy]. We live in a world where the current situation is dire, and protesters opposing an oppressive government on the brink of revolution deserves front page status in our news networks. It is exceedingly frustrating and dangerous that we can so quickly put such a situation on the back burner for multiple days of Jackson remembrance.
This comment has been removed by The Daily Beast's editors.
This comment has been removed by The Daily Beast's editors.
bhamini-n - I think we can all agree that there was a serious obsession over this. From the second it happened no news organization has stopped for a breath. Everyone is MJ 24/7 for the last 5 days. I respect the guys work, but there are many, many more important things happening in the world right now that deserve to be reported on, and many news agencies are whiffing on it b/c they are obsessed with this coverage. ratings, ratings, ratings
I agree with u I respect his work & in fact grew up listening to his music! But, it seems like our media can only manage to report one story at a time. MJ took over almost all of the coverage of what is going on in Iran. And on top of that, Farrah's death happened the same day & was completely dropped as soon as MJ died! That must have felt terrible to her family & friends. I say that our media needs to learn how to juggle more than one topic & do their jobs without bias. Then we can claim to have real journalists in this country again!
don't forget billy mays!
i really doubt Farrah's family feels "terrible" about their lack of media coverage. I'm willing to bet they've been able to deal with their loss a lot better without constant attention.
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It's the job of the media to cover events as they unfold - and it's also their job to decide HOW to cover them!
Slamming the airwaves and Internet with wall-to-wall MJ coverage for over 72 hours is pretty much the same thing as the Iranian gov't trotting out U.S. movies to air on national television during an uprising.
The media should tone down their crack'd approach to reporting, but then, they'd lose money, which is really what it's about for them.
Yeah, well many news sources are in the midst of going under. Frankly, I don't blame them for doing their job, which is doing all that they can to operate as a healthy business, while also attempting to conscientiously cover the events of the world.
IT IS NOT THE RESPONSIBILITY OF NBC TO SEE THAT IRAN SUCCEEDS IN ITS PROTESTS.
The people of that region chose to empower Islamic Regimes that rebuke all dissenters of their Allah-empowered Ayatollah leaders. Changing what they and several generations of their parents and grandparents believed in will take some time, probably some bloodshed, and a large autonomous effort by the people of Iran.
While the world is glad they are finally acknowledging the benefits of democracy, free speech, liberty, etc. (what our country has been trying to do for years, all the while being rebuked), there is also the feeling that, well, it's about damn time. Better late than never, I suppose.
p.s. SOLIDARITY W/ IRAN!
The headline of this article really grabbed me as I have had the same feeling with regard to news coverage. The MJ coverage was ubiquitous; local, national, and CNN. Thank goodness for the web or I'd have thought Iran had fallen off of the earth.
Now we have the other story that keeps on giving: the Sanford debacle.
Our news may have become a 24 hour cycle but it still seems to be driven by sensationalism. We are being served the drivel we order.Get your popcorn ready for the MJ funeral.
Good grief.
What did MJ do to help humanity besides make people "feel good" with his music and dance? Let's save our piercing grief for people like Oprah or Bono who (as I speak/write) recognize this world's suffering/injustice and doing something about it. Even Madonna and A. Jolee adopt children in need -- MJ manufactured his offspring.
Although it may appear to some that people in our Global Village are being jerked around by the next arising event, as if we were just puppets being fed the latest info feast - I believe that is not the case.
Information feeding frenzy is part of the process of this century's welcoming us more and more to Marshall McLuhan's notion of the Global Village.
Since the advent of the internet - each country's "soiled laundry" is being exposed. Since the advent of "new media" (cell phone, twitter etc) bad news travels faster than good news - just like any village situation or sh*tuation.
It was just a little while ago that North Korea's "leader" was threatening nuke war.
Probably in the next few months if not already now there will be competing web sites that will hash through all this info tsunami concerning this and that and begin to create an interactive effigy (that will both visually and textually morph) of say North Korea's "leader" and his pronounced warnings, sh*tuation in Iran(whether or not the oil supported theocracy crashes like the former Sha crashed), further info x-ray on Michael Jackson's life as a performance (light and dark), Obama's follow through etc....you name.
Firesign Theater comedy group had this down: Do you remember the future? Well don't forget it!
Thank you very much for your update, Benjamin. While I was somewhat shocked to hear of the death of a great pop legend, this media frenzy has covered up important issues that need serious attention. Before Michael Jackson, it was Jon and Kate's divorce. It is a disgrace and degrades Americans as a whole that our media thinks all we care about is which reality star is cheating, or who now has custody of Bubbles, the chimp. We, the viewers, need to demand that we are given news about issues that need our support. Those of us who are interested in what is happening to the people of Iran have resorted to twitter, facebook and foreign news groups for our updates. Human rights are being violated. These people are so courageous and I admire them to very much. I cannot say with certainty that I would continue to stand up for what i believe in, if i were faced with such violent adversity. These people need humanitarian assistance. I am not suggesting the US or any military force attack the regime. I believe that we need to continue to ostracize the regime from foreign meetings and alliances. We need to crack down on any company supplying the regime with the tools to carry out such violence or media censorship. From what i understand, they have been outsourcing many of their internet servers, spyware, and site maintenance.
On another note, i would love to see someone write an article about the role of the internet in this crisis. I have been a part of the message boards which have asked people to crash various Iran government sites, including some which are trying to identify protesters from photos. It is amazing how the internet has facilitated so much support.
Stand up for our brothers and sisters in Iran. The regime is in violation of international human rights laws, and it needs to be stopped. "A violation of human rights somewhere is a violation of human rights everywhere" Thank you again for this wonderful, informative article!
Thank you.
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