FreeMediaOnline.org & Free Media Online Blog Commentary by Ted Lipien. September 12, 2008, San Francisco — The model website, which the staff of the Broadcasting Board of Governors (BBG) says will be used to create a new interactive platform as replacement for broadcasting VOA radio programs to Russia, has solicited no comments from international users despite being up for a few weeks. All VOA…
FreeMediaOnline.org & Free Media Online Blog, September 11, 2006, San Francisco — FreeMediaOnline.org has learned that several members of the Broadcasting Board of Governors refused to take a vote Thursday to restore Voice of America radio programs to Russia, Georgia, Ukraine and other countries. VOA radio to Russia was shut down by the BBG on July 26, just 12 days before Russian…
FreeMediaOnline.org & Free Media Online Blog, September 11, 2006, San Francisco — Sources at the Broadcasting Board of Governors (BBG) have told FreeMediaOnline.org, a media freedom nonprofit, that at least one of the Board members, most likely Blanquita Cullum, has requested a formal vote Thursday on restoring the Voice of America radio broadcasts to Russia, Ukraine, and other countries. A source told FreeMediaOnline.org that BBG…
A New Website Hides a Tale of Fewer Radio Programs to Tibet, China, Georgia, Russia, and Ukraine FreeMediaOnline.org & Free Media Online Blog Commentary by Ted Lipien, September 10, 2008, San Francisco — Websites tell their tales, and the newly redesigned, flashy website of the U.S. Broadcasting Board of Governors (BBG) tells a tale of hubris, waste, and reduced access to uncensored radio news for those who…
Ted Lipien, author of “Wojtyla’s Women: How They Shaped the Life of Pope John Paul II and Changed the Catholic Church,” said that Sarah Palin can be described as a new feminist Christian woman who has followed the most important rules for marriage and families set by the Polish Pontiff. According to Ted Lipien, Pope John Paul II…
FreeMediaOnline.org & Free Media Online Blog, September 8, 2008, San Francisco — Perhaps Paula Zahn, formerly of CNN and ABC, could have explained to the White House, the U.S. Congress and the American people why the Voice of America (VOA) Russian-language radio programs were not being heard in the war zone in Georgia, or in Russia itself, when the Russian troops invaded their small neighbor on…
FreeMediaOnline.org & Free Media Online Blog, Commentary by Ted Lipien, September 8, 2008, San Francisco — A country like Russia either needs surrogate broadcasting or it doesn’t. Many countries, however, need balanced and objective news from the Voice of America that surrogate broadcasters living overseas are not trained to provide. If a country also needs a genuine surrogate broadcaster — as it is the case now with…
Bureaucratic Jamming Of U.S. Broadcasts To Russia, Georgia And Ukraine FreeMediaOnline.org & Free Media Online Blog, September 7, 2008, San Francisco — Political jamming originating in Washington rather than Soviet-style electronic jamming of radio signals made it impossible for the Russian speakers in the war zone in Georgia and in Russia itself to hear Voice of America (VOA) news broadcasts during the recent crisis…
FreeMediaOnline.org & Free Media Online Blog, September 5, 2008, San Francisco — Helle Dale, the director of the Allison Center for Foreign Policy Studies at The Heritage Foundation, wrote a convincing article warning that the Broadcasting Board of Governors (BBG) is dangerously weakening the U.S. ability to communicate with countries like Russia, Georgia, and Ukraine. The BBG had shut down…
FreeMediaOnline.org & Free Media Online Blog, September 5, 2008, San Francisco — Even as Vice President Cheney visits Ukraine to show U.S. support for that country in the face of pressure from Russia, the U.S. Broadcasting Board of Governors (BBG), has not given up on its plan to cut the Voice of America (VOA) Ukrainian radio news broadcasts from Washington, D.C.…
FreeMediaOnline.orgCommentary by Ted Lipien, September 4, 2008, San Francisco — While the White House mobilized in just a few days to put together a $1 billion aid package for Georgia, and President Bush sent Vice President Dick Cheney on a trip to the region, the Broadcasting Board of Governors (BBG), which oversees all civilian U.S. international broadcasts, is still in the mode of defending the shutting down…
FreeMediaOnline.org, September 3, 2008, San Francisco — The Broadcasting Board of Governors’ decision to stop Voice of America (VOA) radio broadcasts to Russia may seem like “a bit of a small tempest in a small teapot,” as Monroe Price, director of the Center for Global Communication Studies at the Annenberg School for Communication, described it in his article “South Ossetia, Georgia and Information…
What Would Barack Obama Say If He Knew… Commentary by Ted Lipien FreeMediaOnline.org, San Francisco, August 29, 2008 — Why would U.S. taxpayers want to help a nationalist Russian politician spread his racist and anti-immigrant views on a radio station, Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (RFE/RL)? Radio Liberty is based in Moscow and Prague but is managed by the bipartisan broadcasting Board of…
FreeMediaOnline.org, San Francisco, August 27, 2008 — Senator Biden’s record of playing politics with U.S. international broadcasting gives credence to recent news reports that his Senate staff had a key role in stopping the Voice of America (VOA) radio broadcasts to Russia shortly before the Russian attack on Georgia. Despite strong opposition in Congress, the bipartisan Broadcasting Board of Governors, which manages U.S. government-funded broadcasting…
FreeMediaOnline.org, August 25, 2008, San Francisco — Let me preface this post by saying that I’ve heard good things about Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty president Jeffrey Gedmin. According to my sources, he tries to ignore some of the more questionable directives from the Broadcasting Board of Governors and move the emphasis from the BBG-driven marketing focus back to content. But he has been doing this quietly and does not…