Monday, 30 June 2003
Paging Adlai Stevenson: This started as a post in the Cold Fury blog's comments section, but I wanted to expand on it (read: "blow my stack") without abusing the privilege at Cold Fury. Over there, "Mike" was ranting about this Fox News report that the United Nations is seeking an interest-free loan from the United States, for repairs to the U.N. headquarters building in Manhattan. In the article, a U.N. official said, "It is an established norm set by the host countries following the example set by the U.S. government after World War II to provide an interest-free loan."
With a nod to Steven Den Beste, Mike exploded: "As SDB has already said: established norm? WTF?!? 'Host countries?' Ain't but one, boyo, and it's us." Steven, for his part, seized on the same quote and tartly asked: "Oh? Established norm? Is Belgium giving NATO a loan to rebuild NATO HQ in Brussels?"
So, then: From the reports of Fox News and these gentlemen, we gather that America is the only nation on earth which hosts a United Nations building, we're the only country the U.N. has ever approached for an interest-free loan, the only "precedent" for such a loan was American generosity in 1947, and the U.N. official claiming an "established norm" was either stretching the truth or lying. I mean, you don't see France handing out money to renovate UNESCO's Paris HQ, do you? You don't see Switzerland giving away interest-free loans for U.N. buildings in Geneva these days? You don't see the U.N.'s building maintenance in Rome done entirely at Italy's expense, right?
And, of course, if those things I just mentioned were true, our esteemed colleagues would be good enough to mention them, right? These sources are honest enough to give us all the facts, aren't they? Sure, they're not obliged to give "equal time" to both sides of an argument, or anything like that—but they do have some basic sense of integrity, yes? They wouldn't just omit the information that undercuts their position, or hypocritically demonize the U.N. just like they accuse their opponents of demonizing America, correct? We can trust Steven and Mike and Fox News, right?
Update: Mike responds with a correction of sorts; roughly paraphrased, he claims his blind assumption that the UN spokesman was a lying weasel was an honest, innocent mistake that could have been made by anyone.
I still think the articles were blatantly misleading, from the Fox News report that slimed the UN to Mike's "simple mistake" of eagerly taking SDB's insinuations as fact. I'd say Mike is right to suspect he's been trolled; the question is whether he'll ever realize where the hook in his mouth really came from.
Or maybe I'm just cranky.
- Posted by Scott Forbes at 12:04 pm. comments.
