President Obama’s major Middle East speech offers an opportunity to provide substance to a policy so far heavy on rhetoric and light on action. It also offers the opportunity for Obama to use Voice of America (VOA) to help deliver the message of support to the Arab peoples, who are in an unprecedented struggle for peaceful political change. Yet, for the second time in the space of a year, it will not be VOA but the BBC that will get the coveted interview with President Obama (according to the White …
While the Chinese government is investing $7 billion in a new global media push and Chinese television is opening up new offices in Times Square in London, the decision of the British and American governments to make drastic cuts to their international broadcasting systems, including broadcasting to China, has caused dismay and consternation among Chinese audiences. On the other hand, it is no wonder that the Chinese People’s Congress has interpreted the Western media retreat as a major victory in the intense global competition for soft power influence. How else …
Just weeks after Secretary of State Hillary Clinton complained to Congress that America is losing the information war against Al Qaeda, China and Russia, it appears that Clinton’s own State Department is one of the impediments to success. For more than 18 months, the State Department has hoarded nearly $30 million, appropriated by Congress for Internet freedom measures across the globe. While that money sits in a State Department bank account, repressive regimes are blocking Internet access and restricting information. China and Russia have even developed their own English-language broadcasts. What’s …
Three weeks ago the BBC World Service Trust, a charity for the British network, was angling for a share of State Department funding to promote Internet freedom. But after Americans revolted at the idea, the organization has pulled out entirely, failing to even submit a grant proposal. The BBC charity has developed a lucrative relationship with the U.S. government during the Obama administration. U.S. tax dollars are supporting at least two BBC World Service Trust projects: The State Department gave the organization $300,000 for work in Burma and USAID gave …
Just what is it with the Obama Administration and state broadcasters? Not content with sticking by NPR after the House of Representatives voted to cut off its funding, it now emerges that the administration has been giving money to the BBC and, according to one report, is considering increasing that aid. Of course, one thing NPR and the Beeb share, apart from being on the public dole, is that they oppose traditional American values. Is that what the Obama Administration likes? The report by the British newspaper The Guardian that …
In the video to the right, BBC’s Andrew Neil grills Chief Scientist at the Department for the Environment, Professor Robert Watson on the many many mistakes in the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change‘s 2007 report. As the Wall Street Journal has documented, in just the past year the IPCC’s 2007 report has been exposed for overstating the science on glacier loss in the Himalayas, crop loss in Africa, Amazon rain forest depletion and damage from weather catastrophes. No wonder the government of India it says they “cannot rely” on the …
Millions of Afghans yesterday risked their lives to vote in a presidential election despite blood-curdling Taliban threats to kill or chop off the ears, noses, or fingers of anyone that dared to vote. Despite at least 135 attacks that killed 26 people, the elections proceeded as scheduled, in defiance of Taliban threats. Voter turnout was dampened in areas where Taliban forces were strong enough to make good on their threats, primarily in southern areas that voted heavily in favor of Afghan President Hamid Karzai in 2004. This could prevent Karzai …
