By Matthew Russell Lee
UNITED NATIONS, March 30 -- How does UN propagranda work? Returning from Ukraine, Secretary General Ban Ki-moon on March 28 took four questions, all from Western, US-based media: AP, CBS / UNCA, Bloomberg and, yes, Voice of America.
But it's worse: the questioner holding the "CBS" microphone plugged into an i-Phone, who had already called the General Assembly's March 27 vote an overwhelming "100 - 11" by omitting the fully 58 abstentions including the world's two most population nations China and India, fastening uncritically on one of Ban's bon mots.
Ban said, "international leaders should keep their promises, what has been made." Two days later, the CBS-er put out a Ban quote, "Nations should keep their promises," without critique or irony.
But this is the same Ban Ki-moon who for example earlier this year publicly invited Iran to attend the Syria talks in Montreux, Switzerland -- then rescinded the invitation less than 24 hours later.
This is same Ban Ki-moon whose spokespeople refuses to even confirm or deny that the court papers for the UN having brought cholera to Haiti were served on Ban's UN-provided residence, after dodging, by being taped to the front door.
The same Ban Ki-moon who after speaking in Sri Lankaabout accountability in 2009 later accepting controversial military figure Shavendra Silva as an adviser, telling Inner City Press that it was entirely a decision for member states.
So did the CBS i-Phoner get called on as always because of the misleading "reporting" of the General Asssembly vote, omitting the 58 abstentions and those who didn't vote at all? Or as takes plan in Ban's briefing room, as the president of the UN Correspondents Association, who's board does the same?
The 15 member UNCA executive committee had a secret or"exclusive" Q&A with Ban earlier this year and didn't even ASK about Ukraine. The group lobbied Ban's new spokesperson to get the investigative Press thrown out of the UN, and has not seen a single reform in this regard in the CBS-ers one than one year at the helm.
This is how propaganda works at the UN -- and Ban will this week be on the road again.
While the UNCA board tried to critique and more Inner City Press coverage of Sri Lanka and the head of UN Peacekeeping, we say, people can report as they will. But with coverage like the above, automatically getting the first question at Ban's UN is noteworthy, and will continued to be noted - and opposed. Watch this and this site.
