By
Matthew
Russell Lee
Previously he had declined any comment. On March 28, Inner City Press exclusively reported that "[t]he UN's top political job is slated to be filled with another American, current US Assistant Secretary of State for Near Eastern Affairs Jeffrey Feltman."
For the seven weeks since, a range of diplomats and UN officials have asked Inner City Press if it was sure: how could Ban Ki-moon so clearly (or cravenly) aligned UN policy in the Middle East with that the the US? But this Ban's UN. One source predicted that more "shoes will be thrown at Ban Ki-moon."
Monday evening diplomats from a UN Budget committee meeting echoed that surprise, some adding that it was "disgusting" that the Reuters newswire "re-packaged Inner City Press' story" without giving any credit.
Inner City Press wrote about it and sent an e-mail to that effect to one of the three journalists bylined on the Reuters story, which also listed two editors, without response hours later. This is corporate media, at least as it covers or does not cover the UN. (The irony is that other corporate media, protecting each other, may well credit Reuters.)
In front of DPA and the Budget Committee, just as earlier in the day in front of the General Assembly and in the NGO Committee, no other media was present. And yet derivative stories are reported without credit.
This will be addressed going forward. For now among reactions, it was recalled the Feltman met for the US with Ban's envoy to Iraq Ad Melkert. "Feltman IS the face of US Middle East policy," an attendee said. Now he will be, or become, the UN.
Of Pascoe we wish to say this: when he came in some pointed somewhat similarly to his State Department background. But he'd been ambassador in Indonesia, not an area so central to the UN's ostensible attempts to mediate like the Middle East.
Pascoe through time convinced many of his critics that he was "not just a tool of the US," as one of them recently put it. But Feltman comes with much more baggage. Watch this site.
