Monday, July 06, 2009

GMA Leads With Michael Jackson

The night Michael Jackson died I wrote about why we mourn celebrities: “With the loss of anyone famous what we’re really mourning is the passage of our own lives, their death a marker on OUR journey.”

Topics: michael-jackson, cnn, iran, abc, gma

Tuesday, June 23, 2009

CNN Segment on Neda (I Speak About Her Courage)

Topics: cnn, iran, neda

Monday, June 22, 2009

Neda’s Martyrdom and the Pitfalls of Obama’s Chronic Pragmatism

I’ve praised President Obama’s discipline and focus, his calm demeanor. He is a thinker, reflective. He considers all angles of a problem. And he is chronically pragmatic. There’s nothing wrong with pragmatism - it’s a precious commodity in a tumultuous world - but like anything else, too much of it can be a bad thing. Especially at such an inflection point in history, with climate change threatening our existence, violence and human rights abuses and hunger and disease rampant, weapons of mass carnage in the hands of despots and terrorists, and the global economy teetering on the brink of disaster while the super-rich get super-richer. Yes, pragmatism is admirable, but give me some idealism too, give me some deep-seated moral conviction and the powerful, ground-shaking words to express it.

Topics: obama, iran, neda, human-rights

Sunday, June 21, 2009

Ignoring the Bad Optics of Obama’s Ice Cream Break

What purpose does it serve if progressives have one set of standards for a Republican president and another for a Democrat? Dan Froomkin has been in the news lately (for losing his Washington Post slot), and one reason he is respected on the left is that he’s been subjecting Obama to the same scrutiny as Bush. Perhaps the ice cream story is frivolous and we should focus more on transgressions like this, but either way, intellectual consistency is a cornerstone of moral authority.

Topics: obama, iran

Saturday, June 20, 2009

Where’s the Social Web Revolution for Abused Women and Starving Children? (Boiling Frog Syndrome)

It’s worth noting that with all this triumphant talk about the Twitter revolution in Iran – especially when it’s about a lesser-of-two-evils candidate – we can’t summon a fraction of the energy and passion to save abused, raped and battered women across the globe. Nor can we muster the same attention and will to deal with the plight of children who are dying of hunger, deprived of the bare necessities of life.

Topics: iran, women, rape, darfur, abuse, boiling-frog, children

Friday, June 19, 2009

My Interview With Channel 4 News About Gordon Brown’s Twitter Remarks

Brown said there will be no more Rwandas because of things like Twitter - I respectfully asked about Darfur and other rampant human rights abuses: has the Internet truly mitigated those?

Topics: iran, twitter, gordon-brown, darfur, uk

Tuesday, June 16, 2009

“Is Iran the end of the MSM?” No.

Online communication tools won’t obviate the need for traditional media outlets, no matter that those outlets are going through a painful metamorphosis. I want my news from both sources, working in tandem. If anything, the Iran story is an example of the complex interrelationship that keeps the media on their toes and mobilizes the online community - together they’re providing a more multi-dimensional picture of events than ever before.

Topics: media, iran, twitter, msm

The Philosophical Significance of Twitter: Consciousness Outfolding

As with any new phenomenon, a wave of curiosity, criticism, mockery, and adulation follows. The Twitter meta wave is cresting. Now, attention is focused on Twitter’s practical applications in the disputed Iranian election and its unique capacity to harness real-time events. In the larger picture, the most intriguing thing about Twitter is not how it is different from other online communication mechanisms, but how it is the same: one more technological innovation enabling the outfolding of consciousness – the collective turning-outward of human thought…

Topics: iran, twitter, quantum, outfolding, philosophy, commentariat

Monday, June 15, 2009

Scarborough Suggests Iranians in the Streets Inspired by Obama’s Cairo Speech

Joe Scarborough this morning repeated a stream of thought he initiated on Sunday’s Meet the Press: That the Iranians hitting the streets in reaction to the probably-fraudulent presidential election there were inspired by President Barack Obama’s Cairo speech on June 4th. Joe even went so far as to suggest the ruling clerics “were going to allow the moderate to win,” until they saw how powerfully Obama’s words played in Lebanon ...

Topics: msnbc, iran, scarborough

Sunday, June 14, 2009

CNN Pressured Into Greater Iran Coverage

From the NYT: “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.”

Topics: cnn, iran, huffington, twitter