Tweetgasm. Photo: CC/Roland Harvey
Hey, don’t get me wrong. I enjoy Buzzflash. But I did do a search of tweets hashtagged, #iranelection, as this columnist, below, suggested.
And, you know what I found?
Tweets of mainstream news stories, retweets of those tweets, and tweets of Alex Jones’ coverage, which itself is sourced from the MSM.
And shame on Andrew Sullivan for patting himself on the back, with a reader’s message–citing Sullivan’s tweet pickups–that “the revolution is on” in American media.
It simply isn’t.
This is a repeat of the Mumbai massacre/Twitter story. Remember that? Turned out that was complete bullshit, too.
Here’s a bit from the Buzzflash columnist’s tweetgasm:
This is an historical turning point in journalism. Hundreds of users Twitter on this subject every minute and release news of deaths, rallies, protests, and everything in between. A simple search of #iranelection on Twitter will provide each post with that tag, where most, if not all, the breaking news is occurring and Iranians are communicating.
via How Twitter Democratized a Dictatorship | BuzzFlash.org.
Meanwhile, Iranians, no doubt prompted to some degree by U.S. intelligence forces, are spilling their blood for a hopeless cause.
There is a Newspeak-esque quality to Twitter that makes it very difficult to do anything with it besides share links and very short quotes. 140 characters just isn’t enough to say anything of substance. This little comment alone would take at least two tweets.
Let’s see if your browser accepts IMG tags.. If not I just might have to email this to you.
Maybe they’re about ready to start monetizing Twitter, and the folks who ponied up $55M of venture capital called their buddies in the news room for a little guerrilla marketing.