Get this from their liveblog:
8.45am:
Mousavi's appears to be planning a general strike.
OK. Pretty serious stuff.
Now from their daily news podcast.
8.55am:
The protesters "are powerless in the face of an overwhelming police and security force presence. People are genuinely intimidated," the Guardian's former Tehran correspondent Robert Tait says on Guardian Daily
So one side "General Strike", Tait side "Powerless and intimidated".
And it's because of this nonsense I haven't even bothered listening to their news podcast recently. Shame really, 'cos I'm a big fan of Football Weekly...
Jerry,
ReplyDeleteyou're a complete moron and a one man argument for the abolition of blogs. You DID NOT heard me on a Guardian podcast last week being dimissive of the demonstrators - you've obviously confused me with someone else.
I DID NOT pass any email to Mark Tran or anyone else saying "everyone had given up".
Your quote from this morning's podcast (did you bother to listen to it before posting? No of course you didn't!) is taken completely out of context. It was part of a wider sentence in which I rejected the questioner's suggestion that the protests had run out steam.
The lines you quote from one of my pieces were actually written by an editor in London, although my name is one of two people credited on the story.
I am NOT the Guardian's man in Tehran. I'm in Istanbul - the Iranian government kicked me out of Tehran 18 months ago. I'll leave it to you to figure out why.
If you're looking for examples of media bias against the protesters and pro-Ahmadi, you've picked the most inapt one imaginable. The demonstrators are worthy of our admiration - and of smarter sympathisers than you obviously are. Bitchfest indeed!
Only just discovered this comment in my email inbox. A shame I missed it earlier!
ReplyDeleteOn the offchance that Robert Tait does read this, and I must say I´m impressed he answered the criticism, I wasn´t suggesting that he was pro-regime. Rather the criticism is one I often make of liberal (for want of a better word)commentators and journalists, which is that they undermine protest and activist movements by overplaying the state´s strengths and playing down the resourcefulness or courage of the state´s opponents. The effect then is the opposite of empowerment, it is to weaken their sense of capacity and to make supporters question their support.
Whether this is agenda or worldview, I don´t know.
OK Anonymous?