By Matthew Russell Lee
UNITED NATIONS, April 5 -- Voice of America, controlled by the US State Department, claims to be a serious media outlet. Not original -- they have been called scoopless due to their lack of exclusives -- but doggedly derivative.
Essentially they take other media's content, match two to get confirmation, then file their own story.
But they can be not only arrogant, trying to get media which actually investigates original stories thrown out of the UN for example, but also clown-like.
The full time UN correspondent saw fit to lobby Steve Redisch of VOA to try to throw Inner City Press out of the UN. Even now off the UN Correspondents Association (a/k/a UN's Censorship Alliance) Executive Committee, she remains involved in such campaigns.
On April 4 another VOA reporter showed up, and how, at the UN Security Council stakeout. Doing a loud and repetitive stand-up in the hallway, she drowned out and even shushed a long time UN Permanent Representative.
Just before this she had conferred with VOA's full time UN correspondent. Call it the VOA training program.
Then when Rwanda's Permanent Representative Eugene Richard Gasana, April's Security Council president, came out to the stakeout, she stood in the back shouting out her question. Video here, from Minute 1:25.
She was not on the UN microphone; as part of the Alliance, the UN's Media Accreditation and Liaison Unit helped move the boom microphone to the back. But what was VOA's question? Was it about the morning's Council topic, and subject of Gasana's stakeout, Yemen?
No. The question was about Iran talks, not at the UN but in Almaty, Khazakstan. Gasana at first couldn't hear her question, then shook his head: off topic.
Didn't he know, this was a question from the US State Department? Sometimes the State Department's three, count 'em three, outlets at the UN, each with its own office, tag team and pretend to be unaffiliated. The subject of the questions says, darn, this is a trend.
The VOA circus on April 4 led some to wonder: is Voice of America showing up now, even if off topic, in order to defend getting three separate offices, including a big spread for Voice of America's main correspondent? But is this the way? Watch this site.
