More Double Standard on Fake Journalism

UN fake news: Not on the radar screen

An eagle-eyed reader calls my attention to an article in the Los Angeles Times today that describes the practice of the Army paying soldiers to write articles. "Many of the articles are presented in the Iraqi press as unbiased news accounts written and reported by independent journalists. The stories trumpet the work of U.S. and Iraqi troops, denounce insurgents and tout U.S.-led efforts to rebuild the country," said the Times story.

That is, we are led to believe, bad bad bad! But if it is bad, why doesn't the LA Times and the rest of the media write about another institution -- the United Nations -- doing the very same thing? It's a pervasive practice that has been exposed by Accuracy in Media and FrontPage Magazine -- but very little has appeared on the subject in the mainstream media, including the LA Times, the NY Times and Washington Post.

For example, CNBC runs a fake-news talk show called UN World Chronicle, without prominently describing it as produced by the UN propaganda ministry -- as journalistic standards demand. The show is ordinarily hosted by Tony Jenkins, an obscure hack who is a big man on the UN campus, as ex-president of the slimy, scandal-ridden UN Correspondents Association.

The Nation's UN correspondent, the anti-US polemicist Ian Williams, gained notoriety earlier this year for his sleazy practice of taking money from the UN while writing puff pieces on it for various publications. He still boasts about his work for the UN on his website, even as he constantly defends the UN in the media as an unbiased "journalist."

Barely a word on any of this rampant UN correspondent sleaze has appeared in the media, except for Fox News. The UN correspondent group, meanwhile, has clutched Jenkins and Williams firmly to its bosom -- with these two creeps running the annual UNCA dinner, which will be on Dec. 2. Get this: "UNCA Awards ceremony presided by H.E. Kofi Annan, the Secretary-General of the United Nations," says a semi-literate press release announcing the dinner.

Imagine a Pentagon correspondent dinner "presided by" Don Rumsfeld. The screeching could be heard from here to Baghdad. It's just another example of the gross double standard at work here.

Trackposted to: Third World County, Stuck on Stupid, Rempelia Prime, Right Wing Nation, Don Surber, Bright & Early, Adam's Blog