Inner City Press





In Other Media-eg New Statesman, AJE, FP, Georgia, NYTAzerbaijan, CSM Click here to contact us     .



These reports are usually available through Google News and on Lexis-Nexis
,



Share |   

Follow on TWITTER

Home -

These reports are usually available through Google News and on Lexis-Nexis

CONTRIBUTE

Books

RSS

(FP Twitterati 100, 2013)

ICP on YouTube

More: InnerCityPro

BloggingHeads.tv
Sept 24, 2013

UN: Sri Lanka

VoA: NYCLU

FOIA Finds  

Google, Asked at UN About Censorship, Moved to Censor the Questioner, Sources Say, Blaming UN - Update - Editorial

Support this work by buying this book
Belt and Roadkill
(and paperback)

Click on cover for secure site orders

also includes "Toxic Credit in the Global Inner City"
 

 

 


Community
Reinvestment

Bank Beat

Freedom of Information
 

How to Contact Us



CIA Leaks Trial of Schulte UNearths Wikileaks History in Kenya and Iceland, Blogger's UN Past

By Matthew Russell Lee, Patreon Maxwell Book
Books - Guardian - Honduras - ESPN NY Mag

Literary SDNY / UN Gate, June 28 – When Wikileaks smashed Kenya's Daniel Arap Moi for corruption, Kurt Wheelock had just arrived at the United Nations. It was an organization intent on covering up or silencing coverage of its own corruption, while pointing its finger at others.

  It was before the global predatory lending meltdown, which Kurt after facing legal threats from JPMorgan Chase and Citigroup observed on an analog television set raised up near the ceiling of the marble hallway outside the clubhouse of the UN Correspondents Association, another corrupt organization.

   In that crisis, Wikileaks found juice in the lava fields of Iceland, stepping in when the national broadcaster there was told to stand silent. The UN, meanwhile, bluewashed the Wall Street predators as environmental heroes, even as they continued to fund mountain-top removal coal mining.   

That had been how Kurt began at the UN: at a conference about banks and the environment, held in the mausoleum of the UN's Trusteeship Chamber. From deep in the cheap seats he'd pushed the microphone button and asked a question, about CitiFinancial and predatory lending, and Deutsche Bank's securitizing of it. Both were been given awards at the UN that day.  [Still in the ether or Internet, this report.]

  After the question was dodged from the podium, the audience was told to go buy lunch either in the UN cafeteria on the first floor, or the Delegates Dining Room on the fourth, while the organizers held a press conference. 

It was to that that Kurt went, or tried to go. But as he looked in through the smoked glass door of the UN Press Briefing Room, he was told that it was only for UN accredited journalists.   But I have a blog, Kurt said. Inner City Press dot org.  

The UN's media man Gary Fowlie shook his head. Dot org? That makes you an NGO. This is for real journalists.  

Kurt thought about it. But isn't Associated Press a dot org? And National Public Radio?  

Whatever, Fowlie said. You can't go in.   Kurt stood in the hall, looking and listening through the glass door.

Inside an UNCA correspondent asked, But tell me, why is Bank of America so deeply committed to the environment?   Why indeed.  

 The next day Kurt returned to the UN, paying money to enter as a tourist and going up to the Media Accreditation and Liaison Unit. He had purchased the Inner City Press dot com domain name, and thrown up a couple of stories. 

 It worked. They provisionally accredited him for three months. "We'll see if the other correspondents accept you. They do not want to be lobbied by some NGO in their midst," he was told.  

 "Don't worry," Kurt said. "I'm not here to hand stories over to corporate media. I'm here to get scoops and leaks." That word again. And so it began.  More on Patreon here.

***

@SDNYLIVE courthouse #CourtCastCast
                              200 Worth Street
Your support means a lot. As little as $5 a month helps keep us going and grants you access to exclusive bonus material on our Patreon page. Click here to become a patron.

Feedback: Editorial [at] innercitypress.com
SDNY Press Room 480, front cubicle
500 Pearl Street, NY NY 10007 USA

Mail: Box 20047, Dag Hammarskjold Station NY NY 10017

Reporter's mobile (and weekends): 718-716-3540



Other, earlier Inner City Press are listed here, and some are available in the ProQuest service, and now on Lexis-Nexis.

 Copyright 2006-2022 Inner City Press, Inc. To request reprint or other permission, e-contact Editorial [at] innercitypress.com