So U.N. Kofi Annan deputy Mark Malloch Brown thinks that Fox News is to blame for the U.N.'s many problems, calling the news channel mission-undermining "detractors" in a speech on Tuesday.
But hey, what's this? Apparently he didn't feel this way a little more than a year ago. At a February 3, 2005 U.N. news conference, Brown was asked about Fox News and
contradicted Tuesday's statement:
Q: Do you think Fox News has been waging a political campaign against the United Nations?
MALLOCH BROWN: No, let me be clear. You know, this report reflects that what Fox news and many others have said, which was that there were failings in this program, is correct. Journalists should feel that the work that's been done to expose shortcomings in the program is confirmed. But what this report says is: there were faults. But some of the very, highly exaggerated accounts of what went wrong are, indeed, inaccurate and way beyond what the facts will bear. So, I hope this very substantial 200 pages of Mr. Volcker will rein this story back to the facts and away from some of the wilder speculation that has often characterized it. But, no, I think this report shows that journalists' investigations of the UN were very much warranted.
