By
Matthew
Russell Lee
UNITED
NATIONS,
October 31 -- Yesterday morning
the
International
Monetary Fund
said in
response to a
Press
questions that
the outlook is
worsening
in the three
most Ebola
impacted
countries:
Liberia,
Guinea and
Sierra Leone.
It's a
humanitarian and also
a business
story.
So
where is the
big business
media, for
example
Reuters, on
this?
Now we can say: Reuters is advertising itself. In a session dominated by Sir Harold Evans, reference was made to Reuters "great" reporters, piped in by video. Sir Harry prefaced one question by saying the crisis is nearly over in Liberia; he said "we" have strained relations with Cuba. Sir?
US Ambassador Samantha Power spoke in detail, but seemed to ignore China's announcement commitment to Liberia while thanking all the way down to Air Maroc. In fairness, at the end she mentioned an old Chinese plane -- being unloaded by American soldiers.
The moderator Stephen J. Adler, who previously refused to provide any Reuters policy on crediting other media's exclusives and ignored Reuters attempts to get the investigative Press thrown out of the UN, took a few questions, including one about why the US doesn't have a Surgeon General. Planted?
Then Adler called on Tina Brown -- Sir Harry's significant other -- then Reuters UN censor, who has scammed Google into blocking from its Search his own complaint to the UN to try to get the investigative Press thrown out of the UN, here. filing, under
oath, to
Google is here.
Both forms of
censorship are
opposed, at the
UN, by the new
Free
UN Coalition
for Access.
When
US Ambassador
Samantha Power
went to West
Africa, she
took Reuters
along to
document each
stage. (Here
is some alternative
coverage, here,
here
and here.)
Upon her
return, on
October 31
Power
will speak at
Reuters in
Times Square.
That event
will web-cast,
but
throughout the
week Reuters
has been selling
its clients
first access
to quotes from
business
leaders.
But
there is
another side
to Reuters.
Even when it celebrated
itself for
getting a
leaked copy of
the most
recent Somalia
Eritrea
sanctions
report, it neglected
to report in
any way that
one of the
report's
authors was
forced to
resign after
writing a “regime change”
plea
on UN
letterhead.
(Inner City
Press coverage
here, then
here and ehere.)
Reuters
reminded
silent on this
development,
clearly
relevant to
the sanctions
story and
report, even
as it was
discussed on
camera by the
UN spokesman
and UK
Ambassador
Mark Lyall
Grant.
Relevant
to
this silence
by Reuters,
and making it
more
problematic,
is that
the sanctions
monitor who
was forced to
resign, Dinesh
Mahtani, used
to be in the
employ of
Reuters.
This is how it
works.
While
trumpeting its
(compensated)
“exclusive”
publication of
leaked
documents,
Reuters has
petitioned
Google to
block from its
Search an
anti-Press
complaint it
filed with the
UN, calling it
a personal
communication
and even
copyrighted,
under the US
Digital
Millennium
Copyright Act.
The attempt to
get leaked
documents
blocked from
Google's
Search as
"copyrighted"
is a
strange logic
for a company
that itself
publishes
unauthorized
leaks.
But who ever
said Reuters
is consistent?
Here's
the notice
for Power's
presentation:
Please
join
us for a
Reuters
Newsmaker
Join
Sir
Harold Evans,
Reuters
Editor-at-Large,
to hear a
firsthand
report
from the
front-lines of
the Ebola
crisis, and
its impact on
Africa
and across the
globe.
Speakers:
Samantha
Power,
U.S. Permanent
Representative
to the United
Nations and a
member of
President
Obama’s
Cabinet
Vandi
Chidi
Minah,
Permanent
Representative
of Sierra
Leone to the
United
Nations.
Sheri
Fink,
M.D., Ph.D.
Author of
“Five Days at
Memorial”
Siddhartha
Mukherjee,
M.D., Ph.D.
Associate
Professor of
Medicine,
Columbia
University
Sharon
Begley,
Senior Health
& Science
Correspondent,
Reuters
MODERATOR
Sir
Harold Evans,
Reuters
Editor-at-Large,
author of “The
American
Century”
Reuters
does
Ebola - and
then sells it. Watch this
site.
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