–updated below–
“TM-DC” Podcast of Iranian “Cyber Revolution”
… and State Dept. Blog Epic Fail… and more
Day five and still no post from the State Department’s “official” blog, DipNote. Seriously, why have a blog if you’re going to institute a blackout on the biggest international story that happens to be playing out in cyberspace. EPIC. FAIL.
On Twitter, I have been engaged in a couple of back and forth tweets, one with someone associated with State’s Twitter travel feed, who took issue with my critical post. Tough. If you read the post it is accurate in every detail.
In fact, the State Dept. blog hadn’t mentioned Iran at all, not even on Twitter, until someone @dipnote made a reply to YearoftheBlogger who had RT’d (re-tweeted) my post from yesterday. This is DipNote’s response, which automatically was uploaded in the right hand margin Twitter section of the blog. However, no post on Iran followed.
Ready for some irony?
The following was written June 14th as the Iranian “cyber revolution” was unfolding, while State Dept.’s blog was evidently under a gag rule: Hillary Clinton Turns State Department Tech-Friendly.
Meet Hillary Clinton 2.0—the tech-friendly, Web-savvy version of the former candidate and New York senator who’s pushing what insiders call 21st-century statecraft: enhancing diplomacy through technology.
“She pushes us to think big and to take big chances and to try new approaches,” says Alec Ross, an Obama techie Clinton tapped to be senior adviser for innovation at State. “She’s sort of the godmother of all of this,” he adds of Clinton, who’s used her personal BlackBerry since 2006, though not inside the security-sensitive walls of State. The secretary of state especially likes using cellular phones to connect people around the globe. “Particularly in the developing world, people are increasingly getting their information through mobile phones,” explains Ross. “So we at the State Department are thinking about how that can be a distribution channel for good information.”
Who said irony is dead?
Then late yesterday I received a “direct message” via Twitter from someone @dipnote. Now, they could have used @taylormarsh, but they didn’t. That would have been public and linkable. Sending it “direct,” meant I’d have to cut and paste it to share it, without a link. So, here you go:
Thanks for your Tweets Taylor. We hear you and recognize your concerns.
about 22 hours ago
Excuse me? What sort of rubbish is that to send to me? Idiots.
But since Secretary Clinton answers to President Obama, I’d like to know what the hell the Administration is thinking. You don’t have to appear like you’re “meddling” to simply state the U.S. position on the State Department’s “official” blog. Instead, the official policy of the Obama State Department under Clinton is to IGNORE THE IRANIAN ELECTION, THE DRAMA UNFOLDING and that the United States stands with all people trying to manifest free elections, even as we respect Iran’s sovereignty. Is this so hard? For the Obama-Clinton team, yes, it is. Or, rather, on Iran, NO THEY CAN’T.
So State obviously didn’t “hear” me and have not “recognized” squat.
Five days and counting and we’ve still got blogging silence from State.
UPDATE (9:55 p.m. eastern) What’s this? The State Dept.’s Twitter feed is now using the “I” word. See here and here, posting tweets after this post appeared. But it’s important to note, Twitter feeds disappear. If we could only get State’s “official” blog to actually use the “I” word in a post, the actual voice of any “official” blog. If we could get someone over at State’s blog DipNote to actually post something about Iran IN THE BLOG ITSELF we might actually have a baby blog in bloom. Seriously, who’s editing this crap? Pitiful. They’re linking to statements via Twitter, while their “official” blog remains muzzled? Sheesh, absolutely clueless.
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