Steve Scott's Blog

Our second day at the RTNDF/UN Foundation workshop at the United Nations was very busy. The highlight of the day came over lunch, when Secretary-General Kofi Annan spoke to our group. To the surprise of just about every one - including his own handlers - Annan agreed to take a couple questions on the record. And, of course, being the tallest and loudest, I got in one of the two questions:

"Mr. Secretary, should the confidence our listeners and viewers have in the United Nations be at all eroded by the contents of this week's Volcker report? (which alleges widespread fraud, smuggling, mismanagement and other wrong-doings in the UN's Oil for Food program)

I got a good answer out of him, too. Some of those sound bites were sent to ABC News Radio. They were pretty much exclusive. Only our group got them...and I was the only radio person in a position to file immediately.

Here I am in front of a somewhat famous sculpture on the UN grounds. If I understand correctly, the sculpture is that of "our broken world being repaired by the UN.'

Yesterday ended with a group of five of us wandering around town...including dinner at a pizza joint on 42nd Street...a look at the amazing sites and sounds of Times Square...a visit to the top of the Empire State Building (pretty cool at night)...and then dessert and a Guiness at an Irish pub not far from our hotel. Thanks to Tran Bui of ABC24 in Memphis for telling the waitress that my birthday was the other day. They brought me a NY cheesecake with a candle in it!

It was a great whirlwind two days. I learned a lot about the UN, made some great new friends, reconnected with some existing friends, and even made a little money off ABC! It was especially nice to see RTNDA President Barbara Cochran of Washington DC and RTNDA Chairman Dan Shelley of Milwaukee. They are two rock-solid leaders for our profession.

I'll be getting many more pictures that other people from our group took...including me shaking hands with both Kofi Annan and John Bolton. I'll post some pics here when I get them.

Now, it's time to pack up and head home to Chicago...more later!