Radio Archives - Ted Lipien

Voice of America bans calling Hamas terrorists illustration by Linas Garsys /

Congress, Featured, Hamas, Highlights, History, International Broadcasting, Israel, Media, Newspaper Articles, Poland, Public Diplomacy, Radio, Russia, Terrorism, Ukraine, VOA

Why I can’t be silent when Voice of America bans calling Hamas ‘terrorists’ | Washington Times op-ed by Ted Lipien

By Ted Lipien November 22, 2023

I cannot remain silent because those who refuse to expose terrorism or delay condemning it today will find themselves unable to stop it later. Ted Lipien, former Voice of America Polish Service chief during the Solidarity trade union movement’s peaceful and successful struggle for national independence and democracy in Poland. Washington Times, November 21, 2023. USAGM Watch Media Commentary If…

Cold War, Congress, Featured, Highlights, History, International Broadcasting, Iran, Poland, Radio, RFE, RL, Russia, Ukraine, VOA

Why are US-funded USAGM journalists defending Russia, Iran over the Hamas massacre? – Ted Lipien Op-Ed in The Hill

By Ted Lipien October 13, 2023

My new op-ed in The Hill includes comments on the latest barbaric attacks by Hamas terrorists on Israeli civilians—defenseless Jewish women, children, and the elderly. I discuss the hard-to-understand and explain defense of propaganda and disinformation from Iran and Russia by U.S. government-managed and funded U.S. Agency for Global Media (USAGM) journalists, including federal employees working for the Voice of America (VOA). They went…

“Radio Broadcast Sent To Russia By State Department” photograph from the National Archives, Harry S. Truman Library and Museum. Description: Interior view of seven men and women taken during a radio broadcast sent to Russia from the State Department’s studios in New York. Identified as left to right: Boris Brodenov, Kathrine Elene, James Shigorin, Vladmir Postman, Mrs. Lucy Bates, Victor Franzusoff, and Mrs. Tatiana Hecker, all American citizens. Lettering on top of microphone is in Russian language. (Charles Thayer supervised the programs.) Date(s): ca. February 1947.

Featured, Highlights, History, International Broadcasting, OWI, Poland, Public Diplomacy, Radio, RFE, RL, Russia, VOA

Why Voice of America and BBC Had No Russian-Language Broadcasts Until After WWII?

By Ted Lipien December 29, 2022

Cold War Radio Museum By Ted Lipien A partial answer to the question of why the Voice of America (VOA) and the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) had no Russian-language radio broadcasts to the Soviet Union until after the end of World War II can be found in the biography of William Benton by Sidney Hyman. William Benton (1900–1973) was a…

Alexandr Solzhenitsyn and his wife Natalia Dmitriyevna Solzhenitsyn exiting from Alaska Airlines plane upon their arrival on May 27, 1994 in Vladivostok as they returned from exile in the United States. Photo by Ted Lipien.

China, Cold War, Featured, Highlights, International Broadcasting, Iran, Media, Radio, RFE, RL, Russia

Protecting Communists from Embarrassment: A History of Censorship at the Voice of America

By Ted Lipien November 22, 2022

There is a long history of censorship at the Voice of America, which shows how easily some VOA leaders, editors, and journalists were duped by propaganda from communist and other authoritarian regimes. During World War II and in some periods of the Cold War, the VOA management protected Stalin. Today’s VOA leaders protected from embarrassment Vietnam’s communist Prime Minister Pham…

Cold War, Featured, Glos Ameryki, Highlights, History, International Broadcasting, OWI, Poland, Public Diplomacy, Radio, RFE, RL, Russia, VOA

A Book for Experts and Students of Cold War History

By Ted Lipien October 3, 2022

Mark Pomar’s new book about the Cold War political radio could help American government officials unfamiliar with the history of U.S. international broadcasting. Mark Pomar’s book Cold War Radio [Mark G. Pomar, Cold War Radio: The Russian Broadcasts of the Voice of America and Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (Lincoln: Potomac Books, an imprint of the University of Nebraska Press, 2022), Amazon Link] is, in my…

Cold War, Glos Ameryki, Highlights, History, Poland, Radio, RFE, RL, Russia, VOA, VOA80

Jamming Was a Sign of Effectiveness of Western Broadcasts

By Ted Lipien June 10, 2022

Soviet jamming was a sign of the effectiveness of Western radio broadcasts. Radio Free Europe and Radio Liberty were consistently jammed. The Voice of America was jammed only during some periods. Ted Lipien for Cold War Radio Museum In his book Operation Suicide: “Those Strange Bridges to Communism,” published in 1967, American journalist Eugene Lyons, a former communist sympathizer who interviewed Joseph Stalin…

Cold War, Featured, Glos Ameryki, Highlights, History, International Broadcasting, OWI, Poland, Radio, Russia, VOA, VOA80

Beware of Government Propaganda “Experts”

By Ted Lipien June 10, 2022

Disinformation governance by government propaganda experts can be dangerous, judging by the record of the early officials in charge of the Voice of America and journalists duped by Soviet propaganda. As the Voice of America (VOA), the United States government’s radio station for international audiences, observes its eightieth anniversary in 2022, it may surprise some Americans, assuming they have heard…

Ukraine is today “the area of decision between Russia and the Free World” and “the one big problem” for Russia’s ex-KGB leader Vladimir Putin.

Cold War, Featured, Highlights, History, International Broadcasting, Radio, RFE, Russia, Ukraine

Ukraine is the area of decision between Russia and the Free World

By Ted Lipien March 20, 2022

Ukraine is today “the area of decision between Russia and the Free World” and “the one big problem” for Russia’s ex-KGB leader Vladimir Putin. By Ted Lipien Ukraine is today “the area of decision between Russia and the Free World” and “the one big problem” for Russia’s ex-KGB leader Vladimir Putin. The “Communist Timetable” in the 1950s and the 1960s…

Józef i Maria Czapscy w mojej bibliotece Tadeusz Lipień grudzień 2021.

Featured, Glos Ameryki, History, OWI, Poland, Radio, RFE, VOA, VOA80, Women

Hunger for Truth – Józef and Maria Czapski’s Fight Against Kremlin Propaganda

By Ted Lipien December 10, 2021

The announcement of a new book by Polish-American journalist Ted Lipien (Tadeusz Lipień): Hunger for Truth – Józef and Maria Czapski’s Fight Against Kremlin Propaganda. Foreword Hunger for Truth analyzes the contribution of two prominent Polish political exiles in the second half of the 20th century to the struggle against censorship and indoctrination in countries behind the Iron Curtain and against…

Three sisters, ages 7, 8, and 9, Polish evacuees from Russia, August 1942. Photos by: Lieutenant Colonel Henry I. Szymanski, U.S. Army.

Ethiopia, Featured, Glos Ameryki, Highlights, History, International Broadcasting, Iran, Media, OWI, Poland, Radio, RFE, RL, Russia, VOA, VOA80, Women

At Voice of America, history repeats itself — Part Two: Hidden History

By Ted Lipien November 18, 2021

By Ted Lipien As more and more questions are being asked by members of Congress and scandals reported by liberal and conservative press about the U.S. Agency for Global Media (USAGM) — the tax-funded, U.S. government-managed international broadcaster — I would strongly recommend that Voice of America (VOA) USAGM federally-employed managers and journalists read The Katyn Diaries, a book about one of World War II major genocide murders. I…

Ethiopia, Featured, Highlights, History, International Broadcasting, Media, Newspaper Articles, Public Diplomacy, Radio, Russia, VOA, VOA80

At Voice of America, history repeats itself

By Ted Lipien November 17, 2021

At Voice of America, history repeats itself because of poor USAGM leadership, partisan bias and violations of VOA Charter. USAGM Watch Media Commentary According to the former Voice of America journalist and manager who led the VOA Polish Service during the peaceful Solidarity revolution against communism and Soviet Russia’s control of Poland, “The taxpayer-funded Voice of America is increasingly being…

Dwugłos Wspomnień by Józef and Maria Czapski in Ted Lipien Library in Portland Oregon 2021

Highlights, History, Poland, Radio, VOA, VOA80, Women

Maria Czapska and Józef Czapski – Unknown Links to Censorship and Refugee Journalism at Voice of America

By Ted Lipien August 25, 2021

Józef Czapski (1896-1993) was a major artistic and literary figure of the Cold War period Polish refugee community in the West. He was a painter, writer, a pacifist who became a military officer, a prisoner in the Soviet Union, and a witness to the coverup of one of the major war crimes of the 20th century. His sister, Maria Dorota…

International Broadcasting, Radio, RFE, RL, VOA

Security of RFE/RL and VOA Employees in Afghanistan and Some U.S. Broadcasting History

By Ted Lipien August 16, 2021

I’m watching with great concern the perilous situation of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (RFE/RL) and Voice of America (VOA) journalists and other U.S. international broadcasting personnel in Afghanistan. My hope is that the U.S. Agency for Global Media (USAGM) has a plan for keeping them safe and getting them to a safe location. When I was RFE/RL President in December…

Audio, Glos Ameryki, International Broadcasting, Radio, VOA, VOA80

Voice of America Polish Service Olympic Studio 1984 – Studio olimpijskie Głosu Ameryki Los Angeles-Waszyngton – Live Coverage – Archiwalne nagranie

By Ted Lipien July 24, 2021

by Ted Lipien Because of the COVID-19 pandemic, the 2020 Summer Olympics in Tokyo will open on July 23, 2021. Today I offer a recording from the Cold War Radio Museum to show how the Voice of America (VOA) Polish Service covered the 1984 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles, California. The communist government in Poland, which was then still trying…

Radio Free Europe Radio Liberty Building in Prague. Photo by Ted Lipien. January 17, 2021.

Featured, International Broadcasting, Radio, RFE, RL, Russia

Putin is blackmailing US taxpayer-funded Radio Liberty | Washington Examiner

By Ted Lipien June 30, 2021

by Ted Lipien in The Washington Examiner May 03, 2021 Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, where I served briefly as president and CEO until earlier this year, is under assault by Russian President Vladimir Putin. Through his agencies and obedient courts, he is blackmailing the media organization funded by U.S. taxpayers, issuing fines and threats of criminal prosecutions unless Radio Liberty agrees…