What in the world is going on at the Broadcasting Board of Governors (BBG) and the Voice of America (VOA)? The BBG has started to exhibit a level of secrecy worthy of the CIA, clamping down heavy-handedly on internal communications. VOA, meanwhile, has joined other news organizations at the United …
An outdated U.S. law adopted in the aftermath of World War II prevents Americans from listening to broadcasts on Voice of America and other taxpayer-supported broadcasters. Yet when two lawmakers offered a bipartisan solution to reverse that prohibition, critics on the right and left complained that our own government would …
Kudos to the House Appropriations Committee for protecting U.S. international broadcasting against the eviscerating cuts in language services and personnel contained in the President’s proposed fiscal year (FY) 2013 budget. If the budget passes—a big “if,” of course—it could reverse a direction that can only be described as self-defeating for American …
Depending on Russian government-funded media to broadcast news from Voice of America (VOA) is about as brain-dead as depending on Russian spaceships to send American astronauts into space or depending on Russian fuel supply for the U.S. ground and air forces in Afghanistan. The outcome will surely not be in …
If you sup with the Russian government, you’d better bring a long spoon. While some U.S.–Russian cooperation appears to be happening on the surface, behind the smiles, nasty surprises are often waiting. No one knows this better than U.S. Ambassador to Russia Michael McFaul, who assumed his post in January. …
The Broadcasting Board of Governors (BBG) recently released its 2013 budget request, which slashes Voice of America (VOA) funding by more than $17 million while increasing funding for major bureaucratic offices inside the International Broadcasting Bureau. A reprioritization is clearly necessary. (article continued below chart) This disturbing trend focuses on …
President Obama’s use of drone strikes to target terrorists is depleting U.S. intelligence on al Qaeda and making America less safe in the process, according to Marc Thiessen, an American Enterprise Institute fellow. “The Obama administration has completely eliminated live capture of terrorists and bringing them in for interrogation,” Thiessen …
More than 30 years have passed since Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn wrote about the “Soft Voice of America” in an article that first appeared in National Review on April 30, 1982. Incredibly, today we appear again to be headed in the direction bemoaned by Solzhenitsyn all those years ago. While the budget …
Tibetan spiritual leader the Dalai Lama arrived in the nation’s capital for a 10-day Buddhist ritual known as the Kalachakra for World Peace. His visit is the first since retiring as the political leader of Tibet’s government. But that’s still likely to upset China, according to Voice of America. There’s …
