BBG Watch Commentary
We received these observations and screenshots (posted below) from a former senior Voice of America (VOA) journalist and former Broadcasting Board of Governors (BBG) employee.
Both VOA and BBG are funded by U.S. taxpayers ($777 million in FY 2017 Budget Request). The BBG provides oversight. The BBG’s bipartisan oversight board is chaired by Jeff Shell who is a Democrat. The agency has been run by John Lansing, a new CEO since September 2015. Since a few weeks ago, VOA has journalist Amanda Bennett as director and Sandy Sugawara as deputy director. They have both been associated in the past with The Washington Post.
On Monday, when Hillary Clinton reached the required number of delegates to become the Democratic Party’s presumptive nominee to make a historic run for the office of the President of the United States, (the first woman to become a future presidential candidate of a major U.S. political party) the Voice of America was beaten in reporting on the story by Russia’s RT and SPUTNIK, Germany’s Deutsche Welle (DW), BBC and practically every major international and U.S. media outlet.
Even when VOA posted a story, it was both late and it was an AP report. VOA did not post its own original story on Hillary Clinton’s historic candidacy until about 2:00 AM ET Tuesday, about five hours after the story first broke in the United States.
To add insult to injury, on Monday VOA displaced on its mobile website the AP story on Hillary Clinton’s historic presidential candidacy with a 10 hour old story about non-filing of criminal charges against a mother of a child in a gorilla shooting incident several days ago.
Monday
SEE: Clinton story on Voice of America – late and behind RT, SPUTNIK, DW, BBC – displaced by gorilla story, BBG Watch
Tuesday
Tuesday’s VOA coverage was also an example of good-enough-for-government work attitude.
FORMER SENIOR VOA JOURNALIST:
“It is absolutely bewildering that on the night that the first
female nominee of a major party thoroughly locked up the
nomination, and made some of the most historic remarks in
U.S. political history, the Voice of America lagged far behind
in getting details up on its website. Well after Hillary Clinton’s
remarks ended, both the front page of VOA’s global English
website, as well as the USA Votes page, were carrying an
old story leading with Donald Trump’s remarks against Clinton
earlier in the evening. Even as of 11:11 EDT a full half hour
after Clinton ended her remarks, VOA could muster only an
updated headline on top of its still older story.”
“That this is the case speaks of an ongoing dysfunction in VOA’s
news and Internet operations that should be a top priority for
the new VOA director and her deputy director. From a breaking
news standpoint, VOA would have done better to simply run AP
or Reuters copy.”
On Tue, Jun 7, 2016 at 10:52 PM, our reporter wrote:
BBC fully updated story, while VOA still has no update on its front page
or USA Votes page…see my notes on the VOA story, and look at the
full BBC updated story.
On Tue, Jun 7, 2016 at 10:48 PM, our reporter wrote:
AND– drum roll….as BBC has updated story as of 10:45 PM,
VOA still lags with old story….see BBC headline and separate
updated story…
On Tue, Jun 7, 2016 at 10:44 PM, our reporter wrote:
Still no sign of Clinton live remarks integrated in VOA story
on VOA front page and VOA Votes page… at 1043 PM
On Tue, Jun 7, 2016 at 10:42 PM, our reporter wrote:
Even after other news organizations (WTOP, Politico) report
leads out of Clinton remarks, VOA still with old story — though
it is time marked at 10:31 PM….
On Tue, Jun 7, 2016 at 10:38 PM, our reporter wrote:
BBC first in changing to lead from Clinton remarks….
VOA story changed but still no lead on Clinton remarks….
see attached
On Tue, Jun 7, 2016 at 10:36 PM, our reporter wrote:
VOA Tweet window on front page has nothing on
Clinton remarks observed at 10:36 PM EDT
On Tue, Jun 7, 2016 at 10:35 PM, our reporter wrote:
VOA front page screenshot at 1034PM….still has Trump as
top story….no mention of Clinton remarks in Brooklyn
On Tue, Jun 7, 2016 at 10:32 PM, our reporter wrote:
Actually it is quite extraordinary for VOA to still have Trump
as the top item on these pages, including his charge that Clinton
sold access to the State Department. BBC was obviously right
in looking ahead and realizing that the Clinton story itself should
be leading BBC pages.
On Tue, Jun 7, 2016 at 10:30 PM, our reporter wrote:
This will likely be my only observation — see attached.
VOA sites, including the front page and USA votes,
still have Trump as the lead item well into Clinton’s
live remarks in Brooklyn. BBC to its credit emphasizes
Clinton on its pages…
2016-06-07_231134 VOA Update Headline Only 11-11 PM EDT
Our Reporter: BBC fully updated story, while VOA still has no update on its front page or USA Votes page…see my notes on the VOA story, and look at the full BBC updated story.
BBC
Our reporter: AND– drum roll….as BBC has updated story as of 10:45 PM, VOA still lags with old story….see BBC headline and separate updated story…
VOA
Still no sign of Clinton live remarks integrated in VOA story on VOA front page and VOA Votes page… at 1043 PM
VOA 2016 USA VOTES Page
Our reporter: Even after other news organizations (WTOP, Politico) report leads out of Clinton remarks, VOA still with old story — though it is time marked at 10:31 PM
Politico
WTOP
BBC first in changing to lead from Clinton remarks…. VOA story changed but still no lead on Clinton remarks…. see attached
BBC
VOA Tweet window on front page has nothing on Clinton remarks observed at 10:36 PM EDT
VOA front page screenshot at 1034PM….still has Trump as top story….no mention of Clinton remarks in Brooklyn
Our Reporter
OUR REPORTER:
“Actually it is quite extraordinary for VOA to still have Trump
as the top item on these pages, including his charge that Clinton
sold access to the State Department. BBC was obviously right
in looking ahead and realizing that the Clinton story itself should
be leading BBC pages.”
Our Reporter
OUR REPORTER:
“This will likely be my only observation — see attached.
VOA sites, including the front page and USA votes,
still have Trump as the lead item well into Clinton’s
live remarks in Brooklyn. BBC to its credit emphasizes
Clinton on its pages…”
VOA
BBC
VOA 2016 USA VOTES Page
BBC
VOA
