By
Matthew
Russell Lee
UNITED
NATIONS,
October 1 --
The UN's daily
noon briefing
was postponed
on Tuesday
during the UN
General
Assembly
speech of
Israel's
Benjamin
Netanyahu,
most of which
was devoted to
critiquing
Iran and its
new president
Hassan
Rouhani.
Once
Netanyahu had
finished, UN
Secretary
General Ban
Ki-moon's
spokesperson
Martin Nesirky
came into the
briefing room
and began,
reading a
press release
about the
search for
chemical
weapons in
Syria. By this
time, Iran was
delivering its
"right to
reply" to
Israel's
speech. But
Nesirky's
briefing ran
right over it.
Inner
City Press,
after
inquiring
about the UN's
role in
cholera in
Haiti, the
Congo and
denial of
visas by the
US including
to a counselor
of the State
of Palestine,
asked Nesirky
what the rule
was, for which
states a UN
noon briefing
would be
postponed.
Nesirky
replied
that
journalists
reporting
"hard news"
wanted it this
way. Video
here and
embedded
below.
But
wouldn't "hard
news" also
include
hearing the
other side's
reply? [Inner
City Press
obtained and
has
put it online
here.]
Nesirky
replied
that the
journalists
"in this
building and
watching this"
agreed with
him.
Inner
City Press
asked if that
was based on
any polling.
Nesirky
said
he was a
journalist for
a quarter of a
century, "far
longer than
you, Matthew."
Then he ended
the briefing.
It is
this type of
pre-fabicated
common sense,
or news sense,
this echo
chamber of
Gulf and
Western media,
culminating in
the UN's
Censorship
Alliance UNCA
spying for
Ban's
Secretariat (story
here),
trying to get
Inner City
Press thrown
out of the UN,
holding
faux UN
briefings by
Gulf and
Western
supported
Syria rebels,
for example,
that led Inner
City Press to
co-found the Free UN Coalition for Access @FUNCA_info.
While Ban's
Secretariat's
response was
to threaten to
suspend or
withdraw Inner
City Press'
accreditation
for merely hanging a sign of
the Free UN
Coalition for
Access on the
door of its
shared office
(while UNCA
has
five signs),
FUNCA will not
stop.
The UN is
supposed to
hear from both
sides and
treat them
equally. The
press is
supposed to be
able to ask
questions, and
UN
spokespeople
are supposed
to answer
them. Watch
this site.
, 
