Reacting to Egypt’s growing chaos, the head of the army warned on Tuesday of the “collapse of the state” if political forces in the country did not reconcile, reflecting growing impatience with the crisis from Egypt’s most powerful institution.
…His remarks, quoted on an official Army Facebook page, came as violence in Cairo began to escalate.
That is leading the NY Times. The emphasis is mine.
That is correct: Egypt’s supreme military leader has warned of state failure and weakly threatened a coup on the same site where most people share cat and party pictures.
Presumably this predates any official press release, as I am fairly confident the NY Times does not lead with Facebook status updates when they have any other option. I can just see the editorial board asking: “Please tell me he at least tweeted the same,” or “Can we abbreviate the quote before the ;) ?”
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As Facebook and twitter was the media of the “revolution”, Army embraced it from the onset, basically using it as a conduit to convey any vital information about the affairs of the state during the times, when everything else was uncertain (TV, press, radio…). This is just a continuation thereof :)
Not disputing the accuracy of your commentary, but just for some added background I would note that this is not the first time the army has released statements through its facebook page. There are better examples, but this was the first one I could easily find: http://www.businessweek.com/news/2012-08-13/egypt-military-won-t-challenge-tantawi-enan-departures
Would the NYT have published “..in a press release posted on the internet on an official page hosted by a third party” if it were elsewhere? No?
You may be giving too much credit to the NYT.
@cblatts true – not a typical channel in the rich world, but pretty much par for the rest of us now. and yes, remarkable.