BBG Watch Media
In a new article, New York Times reporter Ron Nixon writes about the announced resignation of Voice of America director David Ensor and VOA’s management problems which extend to its parent agency, the Broadcasting Board of Governors (BBG). The article also mentions a new study “Reassessing U.S. International Broadcasting,” written by a former Broadcasting Board of Governors (BBG) member S. Enders Wimbush and a former Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty (RFE/RL) executive Elizabeth M. Portale.
The study is highly critical of the current setup and management of U.S. international media outreach under the aegis of the Broadcasting Board of Governors.
“A report Mr. Wimbush helped write, based on interviews with more than 30 public diplomacy experts, said government international broadcasting should be ‘rebuilt from the ground up,’ so that it would be fully aligned with foreign policy objectives,” Ron Nixon wrote in New York Times article.
Ron Nixon quotes Mr. Wimbush as saying that “U.S. international broadcasting is not taken into account at any level of the government when strategy dealing with the national interest and foreign policy is being put together.”
This is how Ron Nixon described perceptions of the Voice of America within the Washington foreign policy establishment and among some VOA journalists.
“Lawmakers, foreign policy experts and former staff members say the Voice of America is floundering at the very moment when America needs to counter sophisticated propaganda machines that have expanded the influence of countries like China and Russia and terrorist groups like the Islamic State.”
READ MORE: Signs of Turmoil Seen for Voice of America, Ron Nixon, The New York Times, April 15, 2015
ALSO READ: Times on resignation of Voice of America director David Ensor, BBG Watch, April 7, 2015