Real-Time Criticism of CNN’s Iran Coverage (NYT)

[jefferson_dem]

Real-Time Criticism of CNN’s Iran Coverage
By BRIAN STELTER
Cable news normally serves as the front line for breaking news, but the channels largely took the weekend off as Tehran exploded in protests after Iran’s presidential election.

The performance of the American cable news, especially CNN, spawned an online protest by thousands on Saturday and Sunday, showing that viewers can try to pressure news organizations about their coverage in real time via the Internet. Fox News Channel and MSNBC also were said to have covered the protests in limited ways.

Protesters’ comments on Twitter were quickly noticed by CNN, which defended its coverage. The social networking blog Mashable said Twitter was acting as a “media watchdog.”

CNN had reports from Tehran throughout Saturday, including some from Christiane Amanpour, its chief international correspondent. But it did not provide the kind of wall-to-wall coverage that some had expected.

It was a departure for CNN, known for its breaking news coverage, including its celebrated reporting during the Tiananmen Square crackdown 20 years ago. But the Tehran protests were not covered with rolling live coverage for hours at a time.

Untold thousands used the label “CNNfail” on Twitter to vent their frustrations. Steve LaBate, an Atlanta resident, said on Twitter, “Why aren’t you covering this with everything you’ve got?” About the same time, CNN was showing a repeat of Larry King’s interview of the stars of the “American Chopper” show. For a time, new criticisms were being added on Twitter at least once a second.

Andrew Sullivan, a blogger for The Atlantic, wrote, “There’s a reason the MSM is in trouble,” using the blogosphere abbreviation for mainstream media.

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http://www.nytimes.com/2009/06/15/business/media/15cable.html?_r=1&pagewanted=print

[tishaLA]

1. CNN's coverage wasn't great, that's for sure. But...

compared to FOX and MSNBC, it was excellent. I kept flipping between stations trying to learn what was going on, but the best source was here on DU and on the BBC. And, to be fair, CNN can't really expect Ms Amanpour to cover this huge story by herself: they knew this was a big election and they needed more correspondents, but they weren't there. Amanpour and Richard Engel on NBC have done yeoman's work.