Trying to report from a country like Iran under state-mandated censorship is hard. The Associated Press is making it harder by caving to the demands of the Iranian regime and refusing to allow its Iranian subscribers to use this photo.

A picture that shows that some Photoshopping was used to make the crowd at a pro-Ahmedinejad rally look bigger is racing around the Internet right now. We have no idea where it's from (anyone read Farsi?) but everyone's screaming propaganda!

Is your company's Web server hosed again? Give your beleaguered sysadmins and programmers a break and blame hackers. Preferably Iranian hackers. It's all the rage! Just ask The Atlantic and Boing Boing.

The crackdown in the foreign press in Iran has intensified significantly today. This morning, foreign reporters were barred from covering protests. Now ABC News' Jim Sciutto says via Twitter that he's not allowed to leave his hotel.

Yesterday, Twitter announced it would be going offline for about an hour for scheduled maintenance. Users protested, noting the microblogging service's importance to Iranian activists, but Twitter said its hands were tied. It finally relented — under federal pressure.

All of a sudden, thanks to Twitter and Bill Keller, Iran is like the biggest story of the year! What's the latest? Killings in the street, a president on the run, media in peril, and a Florida 2000 recount replay:

This is not particularly germane or tasteful but why are so many of the freedom-fighting Iran protesters douchey looking hair-gelled mooks?

[A demonstrator climbs the Freedom Tower in Tehran, Iran today, as protesters continued to demonstrate against contested election results. Image via AP]

Andrew Sullivan, who has been engaged in tireless online coverage of the events in Iran, says he is under a "digital attack," presumably from pro-Ahmedinejad forces in Iran or elsewhere.

New York Times executive editor Bill Keller has parachuted into Iran to lend his considerable expertise to his paper's coverage of the disputed election. He should have stayed home.

Stop worrying, everyone. Even though Iran's election results have never been announced so quickly, and even though the loser has been placed under house arrest, the reelection of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was what the people wanted. A poll proves it!

Fitting: while CNN gets a Twitter beatdown for neglecting to adequately cover the Iranian election, the Iranian government's blocking the BBC's (stellar) reporting of the aftermath following yesterday's results. Peter Horrocks, the (very pissed off) BBC chief, writes:

[A supporter of defeated Iranian presidential candidate Mir Hossein Mousavi hurls a stone at riot policemen during riots in Tehran today. Photo credit: Oliver Laban-Mattei/AFP/Getty Images. Read more coverage on today's Iranian elections here.]

Not entirely unexpected: Iran's general election was held today, and guess what? Landslide in Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's favor! The result, called a "divine assessment" by Iran's Ayatollah, is clearly bullshit. Iranians are now taking to the streets (and Twitter) in protest.

Both President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and challenger Mirhossein Mousavi won 60% of the vote in today's Iranian elections. Hooray for democracy! Iran does elections just like America does, too: with crazy, confusing ballots.

Roxana Saberi, the Iranian-American freelance journalist who was freed this month after being (bizarrely) sentenced to eight years in prison in Iran for "spying," gave her first real interview today, to NPR. Her ordeal sounds even worse than you might have imagined:

Roxana Saberi, a 32-year-old Iranian-American journalist detained in Iran for more than three months, was freed this week after an appeals court suspended her eight-year sentence on charges of spying for the United States.

Iran is abruptly freeing Roxana Saberi, the freelance American-Iranian journalist who'd been sentenced to eight years in prison last month for spying. US government arm-twisting wins! So what about those other jailed journalists?

Sean Penn is in bed with the ayatollahs, as everyone, but especially the New York Post, knows. He loves evil Iranians so much that he had himself cut from a movie which depicted them negatively.

Iranian blogger Omidreza Mirsayafi died in prison on Wednesday. He was in jail for insulting Iran's leaders. Authorities claim he committed suicide. That is probably a lie.