BuzzMachine... by Jeff Jarvis

May 02, 2003

The arrest of blogger Sina Motallebi: Day 13
: Hoder has an update on the arrest of the Iranian blogger:

Sina's wife has finally spoken out in her weblog. She's said that Sina needs everybody to be calm so he get out earlier. She has denied all the things that LA-based satelite Persian TVs say about Sina, and has added that she hadn't talked to anyone except to ISNA on the first day. (God damn this indirect quoting!)
In other important developments, Iranian judiciary spokesperson (who is a radical Islamist and has just appointed to his new job) has said that there is no journalist in Iranian prisions! He said that a few people who call themselves journalists, are not arrested because of their writings.
This is their newest tactic. They arrest journalists and activists and throw them in jail, because of possesing alcoholic drinks, or "illegal" video or music tapes, etc. So this way they don'r pay any political price for these actions and make the charges more reasonable for the outside world. They have done the same thing for Alireza Jabbari, a writer and translator recently.
So I think they would announce that Sina's charges are not political at all and he is not there because he is a journalist. beware of their new tricks....

Journalists must embrace, protect, and report on Motallebi as one of their own, as a journalist who is under threat because of what all journalists do.
Why haven't I seen a story about this in the New York Times and the Washington Post and the Guardian and the Times of London and on FoxNews and CNN? I think I'll pitch it to someone I respect myself.
They all did stories about weblogging when it was new and interesting and fun.
Well, now it matters.

LINK | Comments (3)

Big-brain blogs
: As blogs get hotter, more well-known people are taking them on.
I'm impressed with the new blog by Pierre Omidyar, founder of eBay. Technology maven Esther Dyson has a new blog as well (so far, Omidyar's has more to say).
Note that both of them don't mention their last names. I'm not sure whether that's humility or the opposite. Come on, folks, you're not Chers.
A couple of presidential candidates (or their agents) have blogs. Dave Barry has a blog.
I'm glad they're blogging, for I think this will open a new window on the brains of some big thinkers. Of course, they'll be more guarded than your average unemployed blogger. But still, the advantage of blogging is that you dash off your thoughts and thus, I think, a blog is a truer indication of someone's thinking than an over-edited essay.
I'm starting to make my list of other big thinkers (whether you like them or not) I want to see in our blogosphere: Jeff Bezos... Rupert Murdoch... Bill Clinton... Rudy Guliani... Howard Stern...
Who else?

: Clay Shirky was on my list of smart people I wanted to blog. I tried to argue him into it and failed. But somebody was clearly better at arguing than I am, for he's not part of Corante's newest group blog.

: Hoder points out that Omidyar is yet another Iranian blogger!

: Leave your nominations for other big-brainers who should be blogging in the comments...

LINK | Comments (10)

Hit me
: So here's Josh Marshall's blind post: "William J. Bennett has made millions lecturing people on morality--and blown it on gambling," says the headline in Washington Monthly. Bennett has never hidden his taste for gambling but he does it a lot. The magazine says he has lost $8 million.
"I view it as drinking," Bennett says. "If you can't handle it, don't do it."
Pass the bottle, Bill.

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The Howard Stern tivo
: At last, somebody invented just the gadget I've asked for: a radio Tivo so I can record the shows I miss because I have to do something silly, like work. I'll record Howard Stern and Kurt Andersen's Studio 360. Gizmodo reports.

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A gadget too far
: Today, sitting home (because my kids' school schedules its parent-teacher conferences as inconveniently as possible, smack dab in the middle of the day) I've seen commecials for two new direct-to-garage-sale gadgets from Black & Decker. There's a gigantic contraption that just opens jars. (Yes, I know, if you have arthritis, it's welcome. But otherwise, it's an indication of the progressive weakening of American arms.) The other takes store-bought ice cream and smooshes it. That's it: It's a smoosher. When I was a kid, we had to smoosh our own ice cream, damnit. What kind of generation are we raising here?

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Gossip
: Josh Marshall has a blind post.
: Make that Dr. Josh Marshall.

LINK | Comments (1)

The world is watching
: The case of jailed Iranian blogger Sina Motallebi is getting more attention, now from the BBC. [via the Eyeranian]

LINK | Comments (1)

Negotiating with terrorists?
: Two Iranian weblogs are complaining about America's negotiated truce with the MKO or People’s Mujahidin in Iraq. The AP explains:

The U.S. ceasefire with an Iranian exile group it considers a terrorist organization allows the Mujahedeen Khalq to defend itself from Iranian-sponsored attacks and keep its artillery and other weapons, U.S. military officials said today.
The ceasefire signed April 15 appears to be a way for the United States to increase pressure on Iran, which Washington has accused of meddling in Iraq after the collapse of Saddam Hussein's regime.
But it represents a conundrum of sorts for the United States, which has classified the Iraq-based group as a terrorist organization. The United States went to war against Iraq in part to dismantle what it said were terrorist networks supported by Saddam's regime.

And the weblogs complain... Eyeranian says:

If you believe and have classified this or any other organization as a “terrorist organization” and are deeply involved in what you have labeled the “war on terror”, what message does allowing MKO to operate under your control send to the rest of the world?...
They should either remove MKO from their list of terrorist organizations and acknowledge them as a proper resistance movement battling to free their homeland or don’t allow terrorists to operate and carry out terror operations in their territory or territories currently under their control.

And Astigma supported the war in Iraq but also questions this move and now asks, "Can we trust America?"
My knowledge of these politics is about as deep as my knowledge of Bakersfield politics. But we do need to pay attention to how our actions speak. Negotiating with terrorists is troubling, as is keeping minors in Gitmo. We have to walk a tightrope.

: See the comments on this post; better-informed people, including an Iranian, explain what this is about.

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