UPDATED: By failing to condemn the hanging of Saddam Hussein, Ban Ki-Moon, the new Secretary General of the United Nations, "ran into trouble," according to an Associated Press article published in today's Seattle Post-Intelligencer. The story's hed and sub-hed together describe that omission as a "miscue," while the story's lede says Ban "ran into trouble" for what he didn't say. Only problem: there's no indication whatsoever in the AP story - as currently posted on the P-I's web site - as to just who exactly it is that Ban "ran into trouble" with.

Here's what happened. Asked about Saddam's hanging by reporters, Ban emphasized Saddam's crimes against humanity and the suffering of his victims, with no mention of the U.N.'s symbolic stand against capital punishment. Ban stated:

"Saddam Hussein was responsible for committing heinous crimes and unspeakable atrocities against Iraqi people and we should never forget victims of his crime," Ban said in response to a reporter's question about Saddam's execution for crimes against humanity. "The issue of capital punishment is for each and every member state to decide."

Some refreshing common sense blowing in from Turtle Bay. Imagine. But apparently the real issue is Ban's failure to hew to U.N. PC-speak. According to AP reporter Edith M. Lederer's lede:

New U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon ran into trouble on his first day of work Tuesday over Saddam Hussein's execution when he failed to state the United Nations' opposition to the death penalty and said capital punishment should be a decision of individual countries.

Again, there is absolutely no indication who Ban "ran into trouble" with. The story does note the the U.N. envoy to Iraq last weekend voiced opposition to Saddam's execution. But there is no connection made between the envoy's comments and Ban's, and no individual or institution cited as specifically objecting to Ban's framing of Saddam's death and Ban's dead-on comments regarding the rights of individual countries to allow or bar the death penalty.

So one is left to conclude, at least on the basis of what is in the the AP story as currently posted at the Seattle Post-Intelligencer's web site, that it is people such as Edith M. Lederer, her A.P. editor, and a P-I headline writer with whom Ban "ran into trouble."

Due to numerous such prior instances of shoddy reportage, the Associated Press has run into trouble. With me.

Rather than troubling herself to find someone "troubled" by Ban's remarks on capital punishment and Saddam, Lederer not so obliquely cites her own violated sensibilities regarding how things are supposed to be done at the U.N.

His ambiguous answer put a question mark over the U.N.'s stance on the death penalty. It also gave the new chief an early taste of how tricky global issues are, and how every word can make a difference. Michele Montas, Ban's new spokeswoman, insisted there was no change in U.N. policy in what she described as "his own nuance" on the death penalty.

Every word especially makes a difference when editorializing beat reporters are unable to support their ledes with facts.

The real nuance here is not so nuanced. Ban simply exhibits no nervous institutional discomfort with justice meted to a brutal mass murderer, realizing (as Lederer herself does too) that the U.N.'s blanket policy against the death penalty is merely a wishful proclamation with no bearing upon how member nations conduct their legal affairs. How very un-U.N of him, I know.

Let's keep an eye on this Ban guy. Hopefully he'll run into trouble some more with AP.

TECHNORATI TAGS: UNITED NATIONS, SADDAM HUSSEIN, HANGING, BAN-KI-MOON, DEATH PENALTY, ASSOCIATED PRESS, SEATTLE POST-INTELLIGENCER