This screencap shows how CNN initially reported the protests in Iran and later was forced to change it. |
Throughout the day on
Friday, reports from a host of sources were reporting on protests that were
taking place in Iran.
At 6:31 AM this morning, someone I
follow on Twitter noted, “Here’s how it’s being covered.”
Here’s how it’s being covered. pic.twitter.com/h6c2AT2PLq— Stephen Miller (@redsteeze) December 30, 2017
Sohrab Ahmari, Senior
Writer at Commentary
Magazine, had been following the protests from the moment they broke out.
Tens of thousands of Iranians took to the streets to register their anger, not at Trump or the House of Saud, but at the mullahs and their security apparatus. https://t.co/oVIq2fQozs— Sohrab Ahmari (@SohrabAhmari) December 30, 2017
This week, tens of
thousands of Iranians took to the streets to register their anger, not at Donald Trump [emphasis mine] or
the House of Saud, but at the mullahs and their security apparatus. It was
economic grievances that initially ignited the protests in the northeastern
city of Mashhad. But soon the uprising grew and spread to at least 18 cities
nationwide. And the slogans shifted from joblessness and corruption to
opposition to the Islamic Republic in toto. These included:
The outcome of the
protests is hard to predict. So far, the movement is leaderless and appears to
lack serious organization. The protesters face a regime that spends much of its
energy and resources on ensuring its own survival and won’t hesitate to crack
down viciously, as it did in 1999 and 2009. But whatever comes next, Iranians
have already shattered one liberal myth: namely, that Donald Trump has revived
the regime’s popularity at home.
#Update43- The moment when security forces tried to arrest a young man. They couldn’t arrest him because of public pressure. #BreakingNews: Numbers in #Tehran growing chanting Saed Ali(Khamenei) be ashamed, step down and leave the country. pic.twitter.com/phChaq5nMw— Raman Ghavami (@Raman_Ghavami) December 30, 2017
.@cnni did not tweet about #Iranprotests once today. Here’s what they tweeted out instead pic.twitter.com/pswE49GWTa— Stephen Miller (@redsteeze) December 30, 2017
Who cares about a bunch
of Iranians?
The last widespread and
sustained protests in Iran occurred in 2009, after fraudulent elections. At the time, President Obama and Secretary of
State Hillary Clinton shamefully sat on their hands, saying and doing nothing
to support the protesters. They later justified their silence by claiming that
protesters wouldn’t want U.S. support, which would enable the Iranian regime to
paint the protests as a foreign plot.
Tens of
thousands of Iranians defied a ban to take to the streets to protest the
declaring of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad as the winner of the election over
the more moderate Mir Hosein Mousavi.
Neda Agha-Soltan was an
unlikely viral icon. On June 20, 2009, the 26-year-old stepped out of her
car on a Tehran street near where Iranians were massing in protest of what was
seen as the farcical re-election of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. The Islamic
Republic was experiencing its worst unrest since the 1979 revolution.
The state made it
illegal to join the demonstrations and barred most foreign media, which meant
the burden of bearing witness to the tyranny of the mullahs was largely left to
the citizens who waded in, cell phones in hand.
It was around 6:30 p.m.
when Agha-Soltan was struck in
the chest by a single bullet, said to originate from a pro-government
sniper, though no one was ever charged. Men struggled to save her as others
focused their cameras on the unfolding tragedy. One frame from the footage
freezes her final gaze as streaks of deep red formed a web on her face. The
image, among the earliest and easily the most significant to ever go viral,
commanded the world’s attention. Within hours, footage uploaded anonymously to
YouTube had been viewed by the President of the United States—proof that our
new digital age could not only connect people; it could pry open even the
staunchest of regimes.
A few
weeks ago, Iran’s foreign minister and the Ben Rhodes echo chamber began
pushing the line that Trump’s threats to walk away from the nuke deal had
united the people behind their regime.
The Iran Nuclear Deal
and Obama Administration foreign policies in general dropped a chaos bomb on
the Sunni powers, wrecking many of Israel's enemies. Now his nuclear deal
appears to have thrown the apple of discord into Iran. These actions may be
unintentional. But deliberate or accidental, they are consequential.
.@POTUS says "world is watching," but where is Europe? #Iranprotests in 3rd day, spread to Tehran, regime starts cracking down, but utter silence so far from #EU. What can possibly explain this hesitation to back peaceful Iranians who want to throw off this theocracy? https://t.co/q3gTN779S9— Daniel Schwammenthal (@DSchwammenthal) December 30, 2017
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