Iran told the United Nations nuclear watchdog on Thursday that it would not accept a plan its negotiators agreed to last week to send its stockpile of uranium out of the country, according to diplomats in Europe and American officials briefed on Iran’s response.
And yet, over at Memeorandum, as of 11:00 am ET, the top three memes were about Congressional ethics inquiries, the race in NY-23, and the deal to restore Honduras’ booted president.
In fact, you don’t see anything on the page about the Iran story until you get to the “Earlier Items.” OK. So this meme was chatted up for awhile, but we’ve seen other major memes (e.g., health care reform) command prime placement for much longer periods. So why on this one — even with a senior European official acknowledging that this is “not a minor detail” — do we get only a relative blip on the radar screen before the Netizens get distracted and run off chasing other stories?
Maybe I’m making too much of this. I just don’t see how there’s a bigger story than Iran’s reversal. That reversal potentially changes the entire equation — affecting decisions we make about Pakistan, Afghanistan, and yes, even domestic policy/health care. We live in a world of limited resources and no matter how much we like to think we can, we can’t afford to do/deal with everything, whether that “everything” is measured in dollars or time or human talent.
Still the Netizens chase every stray lead and boost to the top of the discussion charts subjects that seemingly pale in comparison to this one.