By Joseph Klein
Wednesday, June 28, 2006
On the website of the United Nations' daily press briefing for June 26, 2006, the UN included a link (from the word "addressed" below) to the online edition of a liberal magazine entitled The american Prospect:
Secretary-General Kofi annan this morning addressed the opening of the UN Small arms Review Conference, and he warned that tens of thousands of lives are lost each year because of the trade in illicit small arms and light weapons.
www.un.org/News/ossg/hilites.htm
The american Prospect describes itself "as an authoritative magazine of liberal ideas, committed to a just society, an enriched democracy, and effective liberal politics". Why there is a link from the United Nations' official website to this liberal publication is puzzling enough. Even more curious, and ominous for that matter, is how intertwined the leaders of The american Prospect have been with the Democratic Party. Who at the United Nations Secretariat has chosen to create a link to an obviously partisan U.S. journal and effectively associate the United Nations with a magazine that champions the platform of the Democratic Party? Somebody at the UN appears to be using this link as an indirect swipe at the UN's conservative enemies since The american Prospect's stated mission is "to expose" the "agenda" of "contemporary conservatism…and the lies that support it."
The president and publisher of The american Prospect is Diane Straus Tucker, who worked with Howard Dean at the Democratic National Committee and before that raised funds for Dean's presidential campaign (introducing Dean to such fat cats as George Soros) and served on the Executive Committee of the National Dean Campaign. www.forward.com/issues/2003/03.03.28/news5.html
Moreover, a co-founder of The american Prospect was Bill Clinton's first Labor Secretary, Robert B. Reich. Robert Kuttner, another co-founder and co-editor of The american Prospect, served under President Jimmy Carter. Joe Conason, co-author of the Clinton apologia The Hunting of the President : The Ten-Year Campaign to Destroy Bill and Hillary Clinton, is american Prospect's investigative editor.
as I write this article, nearly twenty-four hours have passed since I first noticed the link from the UN website to The american Prospect's website and it still remains. This was either a horrible mistake that nobody bothered to correct or, more likely, it was an intentional referral of readers to a website of a blatantly partisan publication that regularly attacks the UN's political enemies on the right. If the latter, the UN Secretariat has violated the UN Charter by injecting itself into a member state's domestic politics — effectively endorsing a particular party's point of view. Those responsible should be immediately fired. If it is mere sloppiness, that says wonders about quality control throughout the UN organization. Either way, an immediate investigation of this blatant breach of protocol is in order and effective action should be taken. Is this the kind of operation that taxpayers are being asked to pay for on blind faith?
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