UNITED
NATIONS, May 4
-- When people
are being
slaughtered,
not in Syria
but
Sri Lanka, or
when hundreds
of UN staff
are protesting
Secretary
General Ban
Ki-moon who
said little
during the
latter
bloodbath on
the beach, how
do the Western
wire services
at the UN
spend their
time?
On
May 1, 2013
while a UN
staff protest
filled the
traffic circle
right
outside their
offices,
Inner City
Press video
here, the
scribes of Reuters,
Agence
France Presse,
Bloomberg
and Voice
of America
did not cover
it.
It
was the bureau
chiefs of
these Western
wires who
through the UN
Correspondents
Association
have tried to
get Inner City
Press thrown
out of the UN,
saying only
they can say
what
journalism is.
But
on and around
May 1, while
Inner City
Press covered
not only the
UN
staff protest
but also asked
US Ambassador
Susan Rice
exclusively
about an
attack in
Sudan,
broke a story
about the sale
of an
internship in
the UN,
and published
Swiss
proposals on
the revisions
to Qatar's
draft
resolution on
Syria,
this is what
these wires
were doing:
Margaret
Besheer of
Voice of
America was
tweeting about
royals again,
this
time in
Holland.
Louis
Charbonneau
was
re-tweeting
Reuters
stories from
all over,
including
on
cannibalism.
UNCA
President
Pam Falk
of CBS was
promoting her
appearances on
a pro-UN
show,
Global
Connections,
in which she
falsely
claimed that
UNCA is a
trade
association
representing
all
correspondents
of the UN, and
for "World
Press Freedom
Day," click
here for a
(counter)
video.
Tim
Witcher
of Agence
France Presse
was not tweet:
not because he
was
breaking any
stories, but
because he is
too low tech.
(He has,
however, filed
a false
complaint with
UN Security in
defense
of UN
Peacekeeping
chief Herve
Ladsous.)
This
was in the
correspondents'
name. But
their troll
alter egos
were
going lower.
They have created
anonymous
social media
accounts of
various types,
and on May 1
they continued
anti Press
moves.
For
example,
apparently
angry at the
inclusion of
Inner City
Press in the
Colombia
Journalism
Review, they
characterized
the author of
that
piece, Armin
Rosen (now at
the Atlantic)
as a "right
wing
journalist."
Really?
It
has been
suggested that
the roots of
these drab
wire
correspondents
trolling
is their very
facelessness.
But look at
what they did,
for example on
May 1. That's
why their
faceless
and/or angry.
On
April 30, one
of their
anonymous
accounts
called Inner
City Press
pro-Assad
for covering
a presentation
by a Russian
journalist
who'd
been in Syria
for eight
months; on
May 1, they
joked that
Inner City
Press was
starting an
Arabic
service.
Criticism
is
fine. But when
large
corporate
media is so
cowardly as to
attack
smaller
investigative
competitors
anonymously,
and falsely
allege
funding by
terrorists in
such a way as
to trigger
death threats,
it
is too much. And it
must and will
continue to be
responded to,
exposed.
So,
still sticking
to May Day,
Inner City
Press raised
this UNCA and
Reuters
trolling
to, who else,
Reuters'
social media
editor, here.
And what was
the response?
Nothing. Just
as editor
Stephen J.
Adler
has done
nothing. These
corporations
have let their
UN bureaux
run
amuck. We'll
have more on
this. Watch
this site.
, 
