By Ted Lipien Published March 22, 2015 in Digital Journal In an exclusive interview with the Voice of America (VOA) Mandarin Service, blind Chinese exiled human rights activist Chen Guangcheng blamed President Obama and the White House staff, but not former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, for allegedly trying to force him out from the U.S. Embassy in Beijing. A more prompt…
Op-Ed: Propaganda war in which Voice of America helps Putin | Digital Journal
By Ted Lipien Published September 9, 2014 by Digital Journal Because of gullibility of officials in charge of U.S. taxpayer-funded Voice of America (VOA), the Obama Administration helps President Putin win disinformation and propaganda war over Ukraine with some of VOA’s reports and programs. U.S. taxpayers are helping Russia’s President Putin win his propaganda and disinformation war over Ukraine by…
BBG Watch Commentary Unique Role of U.S.-Funded Surrogate Broadcasters by Ted Lipien U.S. Government-funded surrogate broadcasting, which started with the formation of Radio Free Europe in the early 1950s, was one of the most successful American inventions of the Cold War. Its effectiveness was undeniable in helping to weaken communist regimes over a period of several decades. Most journalists and…
The BBG-managed Voice of America (VOA) websites were hacked on February 21, 2011, apparently by the “Iranian Cyber Army,” as reported by PiratesWeek and Kim Andrew Elliott, a Broadcasting Board of Governors (BBG) employee who publishes his own private international broadcasting website, In 2009, VOA websites were out of comission for at least two full days during President Obama’s official…
Who is the leader of the Free World? – Reagan, Bush, Obama – lessons in public diplomacy in response to anti-democracy crackdown in Belarus
En ce moment, il n’y a plus de pilote dans l’avion. [At the moment, there is no longer a pilot on the plane.] — A European comment on President Obama as a leader of the Free World. TedLipien.com, Truckee, California, USA, January 03, 2011 — Who is the leader of the Free World when democracy is under threat? For a…
FreeMediaOnline.org, Free Media Online Blog, GovoritAmerika.us, October 9, 2009, San Francisco — Media in the Czech Republic, which have been critical of President Obama’s handling of the recent missile shield decision, have also been reporting on apparent discrepancies between words and actions of the new US administration when it comes to the treatment of foreign employees by the Broadcasting Board of Governors, BBG, a federal agency which manages the Prague-based Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, RFE/RL. The US taxpayer-funded radio station and the BBG, its parent agency, deny foreign journalists working at RFE/RL in the Czech Republic the same labor law protections available to the station’s American and, to some degree, also its Czech employees.
Walesa on Obama’s Missile Diplomacy – American Diplomacy Failed Obama in Poland Update
“It wasn’t that the shield was that important, but it’s about the way, the way of treating us.” –Lech Wałęsa, the former Polish president and Solidarity leader, regarding the US decision to drop the missile defense shield in Poland; John Brown’s Public Diplomacy Press and Blog Review, Version 2.0 Dear Poland, Happy Soviet Invasion Day, Love Uncle Sam…
Dear Poland, Happy Soviet Invasion Day, Love Uncle Sam Wired While American and international media blames President Obama for choosing to announce his decision on the removal of the missile defense system from Poland and Czech Republic on the 70th anniversary of the Soviet attack on Poland on September 17, 1939, surprisingly so far no one has called it…
FreeMediaOnline.org, Free Media Online Blog, GovoritAmerika.us, September 9, 2009, San Francisco — A former employee of Radio Free Europe Radio Liberty (RFE/RL) has asked the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg to look into charges that the US taxpayer-funded radio station broadcasting to countries without free media discriminates against foreign-born journalists and other workers by denying them the same legal protections available to American and Czech employees.
In Search of A Smarter, More Cultured Approach to U.S. Public Diplomacy and Broadcasting in the Middle East
FreeMediaOnline.org, Free Media Online Blog, GovoritAmerika.us, Commentary by Ted Lipien, June 04, 2009, San Francisco — President Obama’s recent announcement of a new Global Engagement Directorate that will combine “diplomacy, communications, international development and assistance” was short on specifics how this new structure might change the focus of U.S. public diplomacy and broadcasting initiatives. That’s hardly surprising, considering that the White House has to deal with many other seemingly more pressing problems.…
“A Day Late and a Photo Short” – White House and State Department Websites Rarely Updated during Obama’s European Trip
FreeMediaOnline.org, Free Media Online Blog, GovoritAmerika.us, April 6, 2009, San Francisco –During President Obama’s most recent visit to Europe, the White House website was rarely updated with news reports and photos and had no new entries at all on Sunday, April 5 when the President was visiting Prague, the Czech Republic, where he made an important foreign policy speech in which he called for a…
Attack Against Russian Human Rights Activist Lev Ponomarev Raised during Obama-Medvedev Meeting
FreeMediaOnline.org & Free Media Online Blog, GovoritAmerika.us, April 1, 2009, San Francisco — According to a senior U.S. Administration official, the violent attack against Lev Ponomarev, a leading Russian human rights activist, was raised during Wednesday’s meeting in London between President Obama and Russia’s President Dmitry Medvedev. “I’m sure many of you have read, Lev Ponomarev was badly beaten in Moscow…
FreeMediaOnline.org & Free Media Online Blog, February 2, 2009, San Francisco — This commentary is by The Federalist, one of our regular contributors. Mistakes Repeated by The Federalist On January 20, 2009, as the United States inaugurated Barack Obama as the 44th president of the United States, the Associated Press reported that Hamas was holding victory rallies in Gaza amid…
What? – No Voice of America in Arabic? – President Obama and U.S. Broadcasting in the Middle East
FreeMediaOnline.org & Free Media Online Blog, January 29, 2009, San Francisco — President Obama may have been surprised to find out that the Voice of America, which Secretary of State Hillary Clinton described as largely responsible for “telling America’s story” to the world, no longer has programs in Arabic of any kind due to actions taken by the Bush Administration and…