If you venture over to the State Department’s DipNote blog, as of a few minutes ago (03:44 p.m. eastern), the lead post is entitled “Coercion in a Time of Crisis.” Before you get your hopes up, it’s not about Iran.
In fact, at DipNote, the Iran election didn’t happen. But more importantly, they evidently have no clue what’s been going on in Iran or what the Iranian people are experiencing. To add more silence on the subject, they didn’t even post Pres. Obama’s statement last night. Nor did they post about the State Department’s plea to keep those tweets coming. That’s how bad the blogging is over at DipNote.
What is the Obama administration thinking? Pres. Obama’s statement last night was cautious, with the timing important. Obviously, the U.S. cannot be seen as, to use his words, “meddling,” which he reitereated today in his press conference today with South Korea’s Lee:
“… it’s not productive… to be seen as meddling in Iranian elections… deep concerns about the election.”
Fair enough.
Surely Obama can figure out how to give the GREEN light to State so that the DipNote blog is at least relevant. They can report facts without “meddling,” can’t they? If not, DipNote should just close down, because it couldn’t have proved more irrelevant during the biggest moment in Iranian history since 1979, which is unfolding online, via the blogs.
But to have the U.S. State Department blog completely oblivious online is ridiculous, unhelpful, even counterproductive in our democratic republic, especially given all the statements we’ve heard coming from Secretary of State Hillary Clinton about State’s 21st century technology outreach.
It’s a moment when we really must ask what good is a State Department blog if it’s not going to even mention the “green wave” happening in Iran, which is historic by anyone’s measure.
Why isn’t Secretary Clinton lobbying her boss hard to get State more involved in at least acknowledging what’s going on in Iran at the State Department’s main outreach to the people, DipNote?
This is an epic fail.
So, if you want information, the U.S. State Department’s DipNote blog isn’t the place to go, with this blackout on Iran revealing the editorial ineptitude pervading it.
Go to Nico Pitney @ HuffPost, or go to The Lede, Andrew Sullivan, Twitter, niacINsight, Gary Sick and many others.
To see such silence from State is beyond disappointing. It’s dereliction of duty at a time when they could be offering real information. Not politics. Not meddling. But a voice. Outreach to the Iranian people that is desperately needed, even as I realize the hope of DipNote becoming an information center for everyone on what’s happening in Iran, especially given their worldwide contacts, is too much to ask.
Because the only hope of manifesting a real shift in Iran is if the people keep up the pressure. Without it the “green wave” will die.
To invoke Bill Maher, a little more audacity, please.
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