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The protests in the wake of Iran's allegedly corrupt presidential election were a unanimous Story of the Day again. CBS and ABC both led their newscasts from Teheran, even though Iranian authorities had banned reporters from covering the action on the streets. NBC led its newscast from its New York studios and followed up with a stand-up from its Teheran-based producer. CBS and ABC again used substitute anchors, Jeff Glor and George Stephanopoulos respectively.

ABC's Jim Sciutto called it "a day of dueling demonstrations" as the supporters of both Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, the reelected president, and Mir Hossein Mousavi, the defeated candidate who alleges ballot stuffing, held rallies. "The difference," noted Sciutto, was that "the opposition rally was illegal." CBS' Elizabeth Palmer pointed out that her press credentials were canceled shortly before the rallies began. "These vast rallies and counter-rallies are the public face of a huge power struggle taking place behind the scenes." For example, at least 100 prominent members of the opposition have been arrested, including some senior members of the clergy. NBC producer Ali Arouzi is an Iranian citizen, so was allowed to walk the streets without a camera. He recounted that protestors "do not shout slogans against Ahmadinejad so as not to incite violence from the security forces." Instead they silently wave their hands in a V-sign.

Faced with the ban on coverage, ABC's Sciutto said he was forced to follow most of the day's events from his hotel room "although we did manage to film on our cellphones." NBC's Richard Engel, based in New York, relied on feeds of footage from Reuters and the Associated Press and "thousands of videos on the Internet" which NBC News was unable to verify. "They are using Twitter to exchange tactics and avoid arrest. The tweets--short Internet messages--read like military radio traffic." ABC's Miguel Marquez monitored the same online communiques in London: "It is a political protest wrapped in a technological revolution, protests shot on cellphones then instantly shared online around the world, snippets of information tweeted to those hungry for news."

The United States is keeping a low official profile. ABC's Jake Tapper reported that Barack Obama "does not want to be seen as meddling in Iranian affairs." The President granted an interview to CNBC's John Harwood that NBC's Engel quoted. Obama described the Teheran protests as "amazing ferment" but warned that the policy differences between Ahmadinejad and Mousavi "may not be as great as has been advertised." NBC's Engel added that the State Department did intervene to ask Twitter not to take its Website offline for maintenance overnight so that Iranians could continue to use it for uncensored communication.


Andrew Tyndall 6/18/09 4:02:41 pm

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