Weblogs as a very public forum
: Michael Leeden of the National Review and the American Enterprise Institute, raises the dander of various Iranian webloggers, who say he supports the return of the monarchy to Iran.
Well, Leeden just responded to one of those webloggers — Pedram Moallemian — in his comments (saying that he does not support a monarchy, for the record). Pedram confirmed that the comment came from Leeden and responded here. Says Moallemian:
I sincerely welcome this opportunity for exchange of ideas, even if I have called him our enemy #1 in the past. I hope his effort to reach out to myself as well as other Iranians (bloggers or otherwise) can provide him with a more accurate image of what needs to be done to help in our struggle for freedom.
I also hope this can be the start of a healthy and contructive dialogue, where both sides can learn from one another and perhaps common grounds can be explored to achieve some of the mutual goals.
Weblogs — because they are interactive, because they allow two people to have an intelligent and controlled discussion — are a great forum for productive public communication and debate.