UNITED
NATIONS, May 1
-- From
Reuters,
Agence France
Presse and
Voice of
America they
went, from the
UN to the
Russian
Mission on
67th Street
at 5 pm on
Tuesday, to
watch a war
reporter from
Russian state
media
make an
argument about
Syria with
slides.
Depicted
were
beheadings and
stories of
mass rape --
this time by
the armed
opposition and
not just the
government.
There was
several
reports of
civilians
accused of
being pro
Assad getting
kidnapped,
tortured and
killed, in one
case cut into
18 pieces.
There
was a time for
questions; all
but Agence
France Presse
asked
something.
Inner
City Press
asked the
reporter,
Anastasia
Popova, on
what basis she
said the
chemical
weapons used
at Khan
al-Asal were
from the
opposition.
Eyewitnesses,
she said. They
told her the
Free Syrian
Army did it.
Inner City
Press also
asked about
media bias, a
topic
which Popova
touched on,
specifically
criticizing
Reuters along
with
Al Jazeera.
Afterward
from
a Starbucks on
Third Avenue
on the way to
another
event,
Inner
City Press wrote a
quick story,
noting that
some said
Popova's
interviewees
had been
tortured
and that UN
probers from Paulo
Pinheiro
directly to
chemical
weapons
investigator
Sellstrom by
omission had
ignored what
information
Popova
gathered in
eight months
in Syria.
Without
including
the names of
the
correspondents,
Inner City
Press noted --
because it was
part of the
story -- that
"many in the
audience
were from
Western media
-- Reuters,
Agence France
Presse, Voice
of
America. Their
questions were
cagey: how did
Popova get
access to the
opposition,
since they
hate Russia?
Didn't she
admit that at
first
the Syrian
opposition was
peaceful,
popular and
for democracy?
(She
didn't)."
Seven
hours later,
at two in the
morning, an
anonymous
social media
account
associated
with the UN
Correspondents
Association's
Executive
Committee
opined --
unlike Inner
City Press,
concealing the
author --
on Inner City
Press'
"excellent pro
Assad
propaganda,
it's good
you show your
true colors
and let us
know who your
sponsors are."
We're
all for snarky
commentary;
free speech
includes even
such a
baseless
allegation
that whoever
disagrees with
you must be
taking money.
But
it is shameful
that big media
scribes would
have so little
courage
that they
would hide
their identity
as trolls.
These same
have alternately
claimed Inner
City Press is
in the pay of
Rwanda, or of
a defunct Sri
Lanka
terrorist
group (this
UNCA
allegation
gave rise to
death threats
- thanks!)
The
more recent
account is followed
by another
which calls
itself
the German
Mission to the
UN; that
Mission has
twice declined
to state if
this follower
with its name
is, in fact,
affiliated
with the
German
government."
This
account has
included
photographs
taken in a
room behind
the UN
Security
Council
stakeout; it
has explicitly
defended
Reuters when
Inner City
Press, on the
record,
critiqued a
story.
Reuters
including
top editor
Stephen J.
Adler, its
"social media
editor"
and a top
columnist have been
shown links
between
Reuters
correspondent
Michelle
Nichols and
these
anonymous
troll social
media accounts
--
but they have
done nothing.
The
UN's Department
of Public
Information,
which convened
a February 22
meeting
involving
Inner City
Press, for the
Free UN
Correspondents
Association,
and UNCA's
president
Pamela Falk
and first vice
president Louis
Charbonneau
of Reuters,
heard of the
fake social
media
accounts, one
of which
recently quoted
approvingly a
narrow
definition of
journalism put
online by
DPI's Stephane
Dujarric.
But nothing
has been done.
It's
come to this.
Watch this
site.
, 
