Ted Lipien

Digital Journal, International Broadcasting, Public Diplomacy, RFE, RL, Russia

Op-Ed: Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty can’t cope with Putin propaganda | Digital Journal

By Ted Lipien May 8, 2016

By Ted Lipien Published May 8, 2016 by Digital Journal Arguing that the United States has so far failed to invest seriously in understanding or pushing back against the problem of Russian propaganda and disinformation, Anne Applebaum, a Pulitzer Prize-winning author and Washington Post columnist, and Edward Lucas, a senior editor at the Economist, are launching this week a counter-disinformation initiative at the Center for European Policy…

Op-Ed: Cuba jazz musician snubbed by White House and Voice of America | Digital Journal

By Ted Lipien April 24, 2016

By Ted Lipien in Digital Journal Published April 24, 2016 by Digital Journal The Voice of America (VOA), a U.S. taxpayer-funded international media outlet made famous by pro-human rights Cold War programming as well as cultural diplomacy programs of its late jazz producer and music broadcaster Willis Conover, failed to report on the recent White House snub of Cuba’s legendary jazz…

Op-Ed: Voice of America or Voice of Castro without any balance? | Digital Journal

By Ted Lipien April 20, 2016

By Ted Lipien Published April 20, 2016 by Digital Journal John Kerry is wrong and what Hillary Clinton had said three years ago about U.S. government media outreach abroad is still true. She called the effort “practically defunct.” According to Secretary Kerry when he spoke on April 19, 2016, “Today’s Broadcasting Board of Governors is not the BBG of a few years ago.” The BBG…

Digital Journal, RFE, RL, Russia, VOA

Op-Ed: Anti-Israel RFE/RL Facebook message may inspire terrorists | Digital Journal

By Ted Lipien March 28, 2016

By Ted Lipien Published March 28, 2016 by Digital Journal Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, which is overseen by the Broadcasting Board of Governors (BBG), the independent federal agency in Washington, DC, wrote in an introduction to its Facebook post on March 25, 2016 that there is “wholesale racism” in Israel. [Emphasis added.] This stunning and, in my view, false and irresponsible message from a…

Op-Ed: A phony John Paul II love story distorted his real persona | Digital Journal

By Ted Lipien February 17, 2016

By Ted Lipien Published February 17, 2016 in Digital Journal British newspaper The Telegraph‘s sensationalist headline read: “Did Pope John Paul II fall in love with married American academic? BBC to investigate.” The headline referred to the BBC program “Panorama,” which aired on Monday, February 15, 2015. The program, which is now difficult to view online outside of the UK, was described…

Op-Ed: Reform needed for U.S. soft power to work | Digital Journal

By Ted Lipien January 2, 2016

By Ted Lipien Published January 2, 2016 in Digital Journal The recent U.S. News & World Report article about American journalist turned government propagandist Edward R. Murrow and the perennial problem of not enough money in the U.S. budget for “soft power” propaganda is accurate only to a point. (Warren, James. “The Struggle to Propagate the Truth: Edward R. Murrow wouldn’t be…

Digital Journal, VOA

Op-Ed: Voice of America falsely tells world U.S. is in a ‘State of Fear’ | Digital Journal

By Ted Lipien December 7, 2015

By Ted Lipien Published December 7, 2015 by Digital Journal U.S. taxpayer-funded Voice of America (VOA) falsely told its international audiences in a homepage headline and in a confusing article that because of mass shootings and terrorist attacks Americans live in a “State of Fear.” Anyone who has seen American city streets, brightly decorated shopping malls, churches, synagogues and mosques this 2015…

Op-Ed: Reform and adult supervision for Broadcasting Board of Governors | Digital Journal

By Ted Lipien November 30, 2015

By Ted Lipien Published November 30, 2015 by Digital Journal U.S. overseas broadcasting in support of freedom has a long and distinguished history. People who know it well, including Kevin Klose, a former Washington Post foreign correspondent, former National Public Radio (NPR) president and, most importantly, someone who successfully ran Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty (RFE/RL) and worked briefly for the…

History, Poland, Russia

U.S. Responses to WWII Soviet Propaganda Against Poland

By Ted Lipien November 18, 2015

U.S. Responses to WWII Soviet Propaganda Against Poland — Lessons for Confronting Putin’s Propaganda By Ted Lipien Aggressive propaganda in support of territorial claims against other, almost always smaller and weaker nations, has been a constant feature in Soviet history. There are many similarities between Soviet propaganda and propaganda currently employed by the Kremlin against Ukraine and the West. Soviet…

Op-Ed: Voice of America in intellectual twilight zone against Putin | Digital Journal

By Ted Lipien August 12, 2015

By Ted Lipien Published August 12, 2015 in Digital Journal The Voice of America, one of America’s taxpayer-funded weapons against Russian propaganda, had something in common with Russia’s propaganda weapon RT last week. RT (formerly Russia Today), a multimedia English-language website, still looked vastly more polished, more frequently updated and far more visually appealing than VOA’s late 20th century GI (Government…

1944 Warsaw Uprising Betrayed by Pro-Stalin WWII Voice of America

By Ted Lipien August 2, 2015

August 1, 2015 marked the 71 anniversary of the start of the Warsaw Uprising, a 63-day unsuccessful operation by the Polish resistance Home Army (Polish: Armia Krajowa) to liberate Warsaw from Nazi Germany. About 16,000 Polish fighters were killed and between 150,000 and 200,000 Polish civilians died, mostly from mass executions. After the Home Army capitulation in Warsaw, the Germans…

Op-Ed: Kudos to RFE/RL | Digital Journal

By Ted Lipien July 31, 2015

By Ted Lipien Published July 31, 2015 in Digital Journal Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty (RFE/RL) is one of America’s best investments in peaceful backing of freedom abroad, which brings security at home. Funded by U.S. taxpayers through the Broadcasting Board of Governors (BBG), RFE/RL “serves as a ‘surrogate’ free press in 21 countries where the free flow of information is either…

WWII Voice of America aired Stalin propaganda to cover up his role in Katyn massacre

By Ted Lipien June 24, 2015

WWII Voice of America aired Stalin propaganda to cover up his role in Katyn massacre From deliberate pro-Stalin WWII propaganda to careless “pro-Putin bias” — Avoiding propaganda pitfalls at Voice of America By Ted Lipien Official documents declassified and released by the National Archives since 2012 show that during World War II and for years afterwards, the U.S. Government-run Voice…

Op-Ed: Voice of America disappoints | Digital Journal

By Ted Lipien May 12, 2015

By Ted Lipien Published May 12, 2015 by Digital Journal To no great surprise, I did not find any Voice of America English News (VOA News – voanews.com) reports posted Monday on President Putin defending the 1939 Hitler-Stalin Pact. The secret protocol to the non-aggression pact between the two dictators led to the outbreak of World War II and the attack on…

Op-Ed: Walter Isaacson on U.S. media and public diplomacy | Digital Journal

By Ted Lipien May 5, 2015

By Ted Lipien Published May 5, 2015 by Digital Journal U.S. international media outreach is in a deep crisis in the period of intensifying anti-American propaganda, particularly on foreign pseudo-news websites and social media. It’s a matter of concern for a lot of Americans, including, among others, former U.S. Secretaries of State George Shultz and Hillary Clinton. The federal agency…