Blogging for Credentials at the United Nations

As we look into the wide-spread corruption within the U.N, it’s important to think about where we source our news. Did you know that you might be able to blog at the U.N., but you would need media credentials? Before I get into the business of the U.N. bloggers, let me take an editorial moment or two here.

There are bloggers and there are citizen journalists, and there are “credentialed” media types who also blog, and there are bloggers who are also citizen journalists, and there are some bloggers who have media credentials, and you have many bloggers who wear several hats. For the most part, political bloggers tend to be op-ed types. We opine about the news but rarely do we spend most of our time in first-hand participatory news gathering. That’s the role of reporters and of some citizen journalists.

Blogging is continually transforming and naturally it is becoming far more complex.

The dilemma of “opine blogging” is that it is reliant on outside news sources where analysis is second-hand at best. The dilemma of full-fledged citizen journalists, on the other hand, is that they often need credentials awarded by large organizations (such as the U.N.) and that can put their objectivity in question. We hardly have to mention the dilemma of reporters who are only as objective as the MSM rag that owns them.

When anything becomes too complex, and where roles often overlap, there’s always some large organization waiting in the wings to be the first to suggest credentialing and/or licensing. It’s big business in this country. The first step in this process is to suggest and then set up voluntary codes of ethics. The next step is to create a prestigious membership role. Membership by invitation creates the desired amount of “Credential Envy.” Credential Envy fuels the spin-off workshop and seminar engines designed to give perspective members what they need to meet membership eligibility. When enough members have joined to turn a nice steady profit for said not-for-profit organization, membership fees start going up dramatically every year. Oh yes, and then there’s liability insurance, and finally a threshold is met where by popular demand licensing legislation is enacted. Guess who controls the licensing standards? You got it. It’s that big organization that was just waiting in the wings. Perhaps that might be an organization such as the U.N.? After all, uniform blogging standards and regulation would fall right into the U.N’s One World Government game plan.

Don’t laugh! Such a thing is probably not far off in the world of blogging and from my perspective it would destroy the true democracy of blogging. At worst it would turn most opine bloggers into little more than an asterisk at the bottom of a credentialed blogger’s comment page. At best, it would relegate non-credentialed bloggers to the bottom of the Google hit heap!

Read about the need for “self-regulation” among local bloggers in Malaysia.

Read “In Defense of Assholes (Sort of)” on the proposed bloggers code of ethics.

The Media Blogger’s Association is one of those large organizations that is working to create codes of ethics in the world of blogging.

"The Media Bloggers Association is a nonpartisan organization dedicated to promoting, protecting and educating its members; supporting the development of "blogging" or "citizen journalism" as a distinct form of media; and helping to extend the power of the press, with all the rights and responsibilities that entails, to every citizen."

What about Blogging at the U.N.?

According to the NY Times, Matthew Lee, the resident blogger of the United Nations press corps, is the only blogger at the United Nations with media credentials. See the following excerpts:

“Mr. Lee, a well-known gadfly who often presses banks to revise their policies on mortgage loans to the poor, is the only blogger at the United Nations with media credentials, entitling him to free office space and access to briefings and press conferences. There had been a second accredited blogger, Pincas Jawetz, a 73-year-old retired energy policy consultant, but he was ejected last month on the grounds that he had distracted too many briefings with off-topic questions.

The United Nations is one of the only institutions of its size and importance that currently allow bloggers not affiliated with larger, more traditional media companies into the permanent press corps.

The Democrats and Republicans allowed bloggers into their 2004 conventions. But the question of whether bloggers should be considered credentialed journalists is a relatively new one at the United Nations, in part, it seems, because the foreign policy debates here are considered mind-numbing to many Americans. . .”

Now that’s the respect we American bloggers get from the U.N.

“Bloggers in the U.S. seem mostly concerned about domestic politics,” said Mr. Lee, one of about 200 full-time resident correspondents at the United Nations (another 1,500 have permanent credentials).

The day-to-day work of the United Nations, he said, involves passing “boring resolutions and delivering food. Nobody cares.” . . .

Ok, so apparently Mr. Lee obviously isn’t reading too many conservative political blogs. The article continues . . .

“ . . .He established Inner City Press in 1987 as a print newsletter and turned his attention to the United Nations in late 2005. Today, Inner City Press operates as both an online nonprofit organization and as a Web site with the motto “investigative reporting from the inner city to Wall Street to the United Nations.”

Mr. Lee draws a distinction between his investigations at the United Nations and the criticism the institution faces from right-wing bloggers. “I end up getting a lot of dirt, not because I’m a right-winger, just because I write about the agencies,” said Mr. Lee, 41, who says he regularly works 13-hour days and lives on the money from several fellowships he won a few years ago. . .”

In other words, dirt is dirt but if you are right-wing you happen to see far more U.N. dirt! Pay close attention to the following paragraph.

“ . . . The debate over who should gain access to the inner sanctum came to a head last month when Mr. Jawetz, who follows sustainable development for his Web site called SustainabiliTank.info, did not have his accreditation renewed. The United Nations department of public information cited his Web site’s lack of “a substantial amount of original news content” as well as complaints from other reporters that Mr. Jawetz’s questions were “more consistent with that of a nongovernmental organization advocate.”

On March 29, his last day at the noon briefing, Mr. Jawetz created a scene by using the question period to read a letter informing him that his renewal request had been declined.

“I’m not covering everything, I’m writing about what is important,” said Mr. Jawetz, who said in an interview that his site published impartial journalism, not advocacy.

Although United Nations reporters and officials refer to Mr. Lee as the only remaining blogger, he is not the only member of the press corps who blogs. Joe Lauria, who covers the United Nations on a freelance basis for The Boston Globe, writes for The Huffington Post, a liberal-leaning blog; on the more conservative side, Claudia Rosett, a contributor to National Review and a former member of The Wall Street Journal’s editorial board, has a blog at claudiarosett.pajamasmedia.com. . .”

Here are the links to the web sites for Mr. Jawetz and Mr. Lee. Mr. Lee's e-mail is Matthew.Lee [at] innercitypress.com

Here are the links for the other two bloggers mentioned in the NY Times article:Caludia Rossett (conservative) and Joe Lauria (liberal).

For those who like to read almost daily U. N. Briefings, go to MaximsNews.com


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