By
Matthew
Russell Lee
UNITED
NATIONS,
September 11
-- It's a
dynamic that
often comes
through the
UN: after a
year of sneak
attacks for
which no one
took credit,
the anonymous
attacker steps
forward to
present
himself as the
victim.
So it
is with the UN
Correspondents
Association's
Executive
Committee
under 2013
president
Pamela Falk of
CBS and
seemingly
permanent
first vice
president
Louis
Charbonneau of
Reuters, known
for spoon-fed
Western
pass-through.
But does
Charbonneau
serve his
masters by
being, as one
UN analyst not
in the press
corps put it,
such a Mean
Girl?
Both
Charbonneau
and Falk were
informed, at
latest on
February 22,
of obviously
and openly
UNCA linked
anonymous
social media
accounts which
sought to
trash Inner
City Press and
the new Free
UN Coalition
for Access
-- not for any
attribution,
of course.
But
they did
nothing.
Charbonneau at
that on
the record
meeting told
Inner City
Press, the
fundamental
problem is
your website.
Audio
here. But
InnerCityPress.com
is on the
record. The
UNCA trolls
are not.
The
UNCA-linked
accounts
proliferated.
One was
noticed by a
pro UN analyst
who asked,
"why are they
tweeting like
a 'mean girl'?
No pic,
either.
Weird." But it
continued.
Last
week, right
after InnerCityPress.com
published an
on the record
article noting
that for US
Ambassador
Samantha
Power's
stakeout the
three
questioners
selected
were all UNCA
Executive
Committee
members who
had sponsored
the faux
"UN briefing"
in late July
by Saudi
sponsored
Syria rebel
leader Ahmad
al Jarba,
the UNCA
(Executive
Committee)
trolls went
lower still.
They
started one
then two
counterfeit
Twitter
accounts with
Inner City
Press' name
only slightly
varied, and
started
following
every single
follower of @FUNCA_info then @InnerCityPress.
Inner
City Press
wrote about
it, but it
continued.
MediaBistro's
FishBowlNY
wanted to
write about
it, and did,
after seeing
the documents
showing Voice
of America
saying Reuters
under
Charbonneau
and AFP
under Tim
Witcher
supported VOA's attempt
to get Inner
City Press thrown out of
the UN.
There are yet
more damning
documents; the
Freedom of
Information
Act process at
VOA's
Broadcast
Board of
Governors
continues.
The
response? An
anonymous
comment to
MediaBistro
purported to
speak for all
UN journalists
(as UNCA
always
purports to
do), calling
Inner City
Press "pro
Syria, pro
Rwanda, anti
French."
This last,
"anti-French,"
is very
telling.
Then, the
belated
addition to
the smaller of
the two
accounts of
the word
"satire" and
"(Not)." The
other, pitched
at diplomats,
does not
contain these
words.
And
then... yet
more anonymous
tweeting,
continuing. Or
as the pro UN
analyst called
it, "Mean
Girl"
tweeting. And
who is
responsible?
Louis "Mean
Girl"
Charbonneau?
Charbonneau
did,
as documented,
SPY for the
UN, giving UN
accreditation
official
Stephane
Dujarric an
anti-Press
internal UNCA
document three minutes
after
promising he
would not.
Story
here, audio here,
document
here.
UNbelievably,or
oh-so-UN,
neither
Dujarric or
his DPI, nor
Charbonneau,
Reuters or
Falk's UNCA
have ever
explained
this. So "Mean
Girls" is the
least of it.
Pass-through
for war
continues.
Watch this
site.
, 
