Posted on 10/27/2001 5:59:18 AM PDT by Ragtime Cowgirl
Right now on C-Span a representative of VOA, it's parent organization International Broadcast Bureau is talking about VOA's reach and responsibility overseas.
80% of Afghani men listen to VOA daily.
Some caller just said that they should have people like Noam Chomsky on and this rep., Joseph O'Connell said he would like that.
The VOA broadcasts in Pashtun (sp) where they have contacts with the Taliban. Mr. O'Connell said that the Taliban listens to VOA.
The VOA is part of the State Dept. and is our government's voice overseas. Recently, 150 members of VOA walked out in protest after their Commander-in-Chief asked that they NOT play Taliban propaganda.
Suggestions for VOA, read the Constitution. Share with the world those unfamiliar concepts offered every American in the Bill of Rights: the freedom to worship, the freedom to speak out against your own government, the freedom to peacefully assemble, the freedom to own property, trial by jury...tell the world about 9-11.
Any iota of help to the US and its brave military is ruled out.
The VOA is staffed by traitors. Like the State Dept., this must be run by Hamas.
VOA, which has been around since 1942, in World War II, broadcasts by radio around the world in 53 languages to some 91 million people each week.
It is not beamed at Western Europe or to Americans here in the United States, but its information programming is available to anyone and everyone on the Internet.
Funded by U.S. taxpayers, VOA is lodged in the Department of State.
Thanks, Bump and Ping-a-roonie!
But, according to the board's chairman, Marc B. Nathanson, a Bill Clinton appointee and well-known fund-raiser for the Democratic presidential candidacy of former Vice President Al Gore, the board's responsibility is to:
"Serve as a firewall between the international broadcasters and the policy-making institutions in the foreign-affairs community, both here in Washington and overseas."
(See link at #2)
Because the Bush administration didn't want VOA to assist the Taliban leader in spreading his anti-American slander, some 150 VOA employees – as if they didn't get paid to work for this government – threatened to resign en masse if the interview were not broadcast.
The governing board caved, and VOA officials bulled right ahead anyway and put Omar on the air.
If indeed these traitors threatened to resign en masse, why on Earth did we not accept their offer with hearty and prolonged appaluse?
"As the representative agency overseas for the American way of life, it is your duty to further the understanding of our beliefs in regions where this message does not get through by local sources.
You have a great responsibility. We Americans are counting on you to support our President and our troops.
Any aid or comfort given to the enemy is treason. Supporting the Taliban's propoganda war is treason. Don't kid yourself about rationalizing these actions. You are Voice of America. If you do not wish to support our government, then quit your job immediately.
This is war and we will remember our allies and our enemies."
So what's all this nonsense about VOA being an independent purveyor of news?
Its job – its only job – is to broadcast clearly and forthrightly America's line and be proud doing it. Or step aside and let someone do it who is proud to portray this country.
VOA is no one's journalistic entity. That is why it enjoys absolutely zero First Amendment rights, precisely why it should not enjoy any.
The non-government-controlled press in this country is blessed as no other on this planet. It and only it has the First Amendment press-freedom guarantees. Along with those rights go commensurate responsibilities.
Okay..hold on a minute, your statement is a bit over the top. For example, I can tell you for a fact that the russian language division is not over run with lefties...quite the opposite. Jokingly, I used to refer to their broadcasts as voice of Soviet dissidents. I know the news and political directors...and they're as knowledgable of the facts as any long term freeper.
Now some of the other language divisions may have various sensibilities, and often rely on the english service for materials which are then translated. All in all, the broadcasts are used as a propoganda arm of the US Information Agency.
Are there some issues with the staff..probably as in any agency. I certainly wouldn't take issue with them interviewing Chomsky....for one it would support the baffling notion that in America he won't be decapitated for offering another opinion.
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