If
Asking
Big Media
Their Policies
Is A Crime
From UN to
CBS, An Open
Letter, 3
Questions
By
Matthew
Russell Lee
UNITED
NATIONS,
March 16 --
Pamela Falk of
CBS told Inner
City Press on
February 22
that writing
to the big
media
companies on
the UN
Correspondents
Association
board about
their policies
"could
constitute a
crime."
As
well as being
the president
of UNCA,
which in 2012
tried to get
Inner City
Press thrown
out of the UN,
Falk is a
lawyer -- but
she did not
specify what
crime this
would be.
Nor would
the UN, whose
Media
Accreditation
boss Stephane
Dujarric on
February 27
filed a false
complaint
against Inner
City Press for
reporting
Falk's
comments.
Shown that his
complaint
was false --
Inner City
Press had said
loudly, “you
are on the
record” and
Falk said
“he's going to
write this
up,” audio
here --
Dujarric
refused to
retract it.
Rather,
another
UNCA “leader,”
Tim
Witcher of
Agence France
Presse,
along
with Reuters'
Michelle
Nichols, filed
their own
false
complaints
with
UN Security,
apparently
based on Inner
City Press
replying to
Witcher
hissing “lies
and
distortion” by
saying, “lapdog.”
(Significantly,
Falk on
February 22
called Inner
City Press "a
mugger.")
Despite
repeated
requests, the
UN won't
disclose even
a summary of
the
complaints --
to which it
has
nonetheless
twice in
Kafka-esque
form
demanded a
written
response --
nor its rules
for the filing
of false
or pre-textual
complaints, as
the New
York Civil
Liberties
Union asked
the chief of
the UN
Department of
Public
Information on
July 5, 2012
regarding an
ejection
attempt by
UNCA before
Falk blithely
took it over.
How
to ask Reuters
and AFP, then,
what their
policies are
on their
correspondents
filing false
complaints
with the UN
based entirely
on
free speech,
as a pre-text
to try to get
a smaller
competitor
thrown
out?
Writing
and
asking Reuters
or AFP “might
be a crime,”
according to
Pamela
Falk of CBS,
the president
of UNCA, now
known as the
UN's
Censorship
Alliance.
And
so there can
be only open
letters,
sometimes with
audio, open
source.
The first must
be to CBS
itself, to ask
about its UN
correspondent's
vague
allegations of
crime.
CBS'
web site says
“Dr. Falk”
reports for
CBS Radio and
CBS TV, as
well as the
“blogs”
Political
Hotsheet and
WorldWatch.
The
CBS website
does not list
anything by
Falk in the
past week,
despite
her statement
that she is
not at the
noon briefings
-- and does
not
know their
traditions,
and therefore
claims that
UNCA gets the
first
question at
noon briefings
“by tradition”
-- because she
is
always
“broadcasting”
at that time.
But
before the
empty past
seven days
Falk appeared
on CBS Up To
The
Minute. This
CBS show runs
between 2 am
and 3 am; it
is directed by
James McGrath
and Chris
Easley. Its
executive
producer is
Brian
Applegate; its
many producers
include Joseph
Gelosi, Norman
Gittleson,
Tony
DiPolvere,
Anlynn Truong,
Jenn Eaker and
Erin Petrun.
So
here are three
questions --
not criminal,
we trust --
for them and
other at CBS:
1) Before
accepting on a
platter -
running with
no competition
- for the top
spot at UNCA,
an
organization
engaged in
2012 in a
controversial
campaign
to get a
smaller
investigative
media thrown
out of the UN,
did Falk ask
CBS'
permission or
advice?
2) As
UNCA “leaders”
under her
tenure started
anonymous social
media
accounts
to allege
Inner City
Press receives
terrorist
financing,
triggering
threats from
extremists
such as in
2012, did Falk
seek CBS
advice or
permission?
3) What
did CBS' Falk
mean when she
said that to
write to big
media like CBS
to ask about
policies, of
using
anonymous
sources,
taking other
media's
exclusive
stories
without
credit, of
filing false
or pre-text
complaints,
could
“constitute a
crime”? Audio
here.
Do
these acts
undermine
media freedom?
Is CBS
comfortable
with them
being
attributed to
it?
These are
public
questions, for
the reasons
set forth
above, calling
for a public
response.
Watch this
site.
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