Sunday, June 21, 2009

Remember Neda


I sit here watching this on Father's Day -- my own little girl asleep in peace across from me in our living room, the birds chirping and a cool breeze coming through our open door on a nice day in a free country -- and it puts the whole wide world in heartbreaking perspective.

7 comments:

Anonymous said...

There are questions as to whether this was even taken in Iran. There were no accredited journalists (those left wing types) there to document it. Just Jihad Al-Jazziri with his cell phone.
Makes ya kinda miss real Journalism, doesn't it?
Careful what you ask for, Splash, you just might get it.
--CI Photog

Splash said...

Um... 1) There were "real" journalists there. They were ordered to stay indoors and refrain from reporting. And of course, they did. And 2) this video has been corroborated by a second cell phone video that shows Neda and her father standing on the corner watching the demonstrators go by moments before.

Once again, new media running circles around dino-media at light speed.

But where else on earth are you thinking to find women gunned down in the street where people are speaking Farsi?? Or do you contend this was staged in the same L.A. warehouse they filmed the "moon landing"?

I believe you're the only media representative anywhere seriously calling this a fake, by the way. Skim the 6,000+ articles from new- and dino-media online to see if I'm right... Assuming you get that new-fangled Internet thing on your Commodore 64, Grandpa. ;-)

Anonymous said...

Never called it a fake. Read my post again carefully, Dr. Spin.

Used the word QUESTION about reliability of AMATEURS.
Just found it on the INTERNET, on MSN.com, mixed among:

Dare to Bare for Hot Fashion:
Sizzlin' halter tops under $25
Peep-toe sandals under $50
Sexy dresses under $100
Sassy skirts under $75
Women's swimwear under $50
Also on MSN
10 secrets to a life of happiness
4 celeb hairstyles you really can copy
Fewer men want to be stay-at-home dads
6 heavenly, simple Italian desserts
All-American metal: 3 powerful SUVs

Entertainment Jon & Kate Gosselin are divorcing
Gossip: Is Pattinson in love triangle?

There was a video of it suggesting the QUESTION of the veracity, as it was filmed by AMATEURS.

You can't believe everything you see on the internet, kiddo.

Fake moon landings? Come a little closer....
;-) -CI

Splash said...

Yeahhhh. That's why most people use Google News, not MSN.com. Filters out the, er, non-news. (Again, the hits I was referring to were from WSJ, Daily Telegraph, NYT, et al.)

Gees, man... Even when you're workin' the Web it's the dino-Internet, ain't it?

And "the reliability of amateurs" isn't spin for "fake"??

What, like they really intended to shoot a Miley Cyrus appearance at the Tehran Pavilion Mall and accidentally got a murder that was incorrectly tagged as election violence??

I ask again, what the hell else do you think this video is? It's the murder of a Farsi-speaking young woman on a street. One seen in another video of the protests, so...?

[Cue obfuscation/doublespeak.]

K said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
K said...

I'm afraid I don't understand this kind of thing.

Certainly the death of this girl is a tragedy, but it's something that happens all the time. If, say, a protester had, say, accidently shot her instead of a government operative would we be using her death for the purpose of discrediting the protesters? I think not.

When the national guard opened up at Kent State, killing people who had nothing to do with the protests did the government fall? Should it have fallen?

When the Iranian troops open up and kill hundreds, when thousands are marched into concentration camps and kept there without trial, when people disappear ( as I expect they have for some time) then get back to me. Right now the government of Iran, as despicable as they are, are not doing anything any other government faced with a riot situation would do.

Splash said...

K,

I guess I don't care about the macro legitimacy of a government's reaction to unrest.

Anything that reduces Ahmadinijad's standing in the world's eyes is a step in the right direction.

Though I hardly equate Kent State with a sniper taking out a bystanding 16-year-old girl. (And I realize you don't either.)

My point was that I realized, watching the blood flow from her head, that things like that don't happen here, as ugly as things are in terms of our momentum. And for the first time in my life, I felt actual compassion for Iranians, even ordinary ones.

Though, yes, I also realize the opposition is still Islamic and Iran would still be controlled by the Guardian Council.

...

It's neither here nor there, check out this from The Daily Show, of which I'm not a fan, particularly of what they mean by doing this segment. But it does underscore what we've known about the "Iranian on the street" for years.

http://www.hulu.com/watch/78423/the-daily-show-with-jon-stewart-jason-jones-in-iran-behind-the-veil-minarets-of-menace