BBC, DW, RT went Facebook Live with Blasey Ford; VOA did not

BBG Watch Commentary

BBC, Germany’s Deutsche Welle (DW) and Russia’s RT all had Facebook LIVE transmissions of the dramatic testimony Thursday from Dr. Christine Blasey Ford, the woman who claims she was sexually assaulted by the Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh when they were teenagers, but U.S. taxpayer-funded Voice of America (VOA) did not.

As noted by former VOA reporters, for well over an hour after the Blasey Ford’s testimony started, the Voice of America (VOA) English-language news homepage did not direct viewers to the live link, which both BBC and RT did. Almost every other major U.S. news organization and many foreign news websites, including The Washington Post and The Hill, were showing live coverage on first-level stories and homepage alerts, but not VOA.

“The LIVE links were not visible, or promoted by the Voice of America, on the actual front page story,” one former VOA reporter observed.

“You had to go to the second-level…it’s clear that VOA’s implementation is inferior to BBC, RT and others, such as The Hill and The Washington Post, which promote the live link right on the front story,” the journalist noted.

VOA’s live link was buried after the third paragraph on the second-level of the VOA story and was not visible on the front page until much later.
 

VOA NEWS Report

 

 
Unlike BBC, DW, and RT, VOA never managed to go Facebook LIVE with Blasey Ford’s testimony. Much later VOA had a Facebook post which in violation of the VOA Charter failed to mention even in one sentence of the introduction that Dr. Ford’s rape allegations, which VOA presented in graphic details in several sentences, are denied by Judge Kavanaugh.

“Voice of America’s failure to place a LIVE link, even one directing people to the actual live link within, is pathetic,” a former senior VOA correspondent observed.
 

BBC Facebook LIVE Post

 

 

DW Facebook LIVE Post

 

 

RT Facebook LIVE Post

 

 

BBC Homepage 10:44 AM EDT

 

 

VOA Homepage 10:48 AM EDT

 

 

DW Homepage 10:51 AM EDT

 

 

VOA Homepage 11:52 AM EDT

 
“So, it took them quite a while after the start of the hearing, to have actual video showing on the front page, rather than buried with the main story at second-level of access,” a former VOA reporter noted.
 

 
 
VOA’s not live and delayed Facebook post had a one-sided introduction that violated the VOA Charter by not including the denial of the allegations.

Inclusion of one-sided and partisan messages in Facebook posts appears to be a frequent practice among both Voice of America and Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty (RFE/RL) web editors. Both VOA and RFE/RL are managed by the U.S. Agency for Global Media (USAGM), formerly called the Broadcasting Board of Governors (BBG), which is headed by USAGM holdover CEO John F. Lansing.

VOA also has a holdover director Amanda Bennett. Both got their U.S. government jobs during the Obama administration.

The VOA story failed to explain to foreign audiences some of the partisan elements in current and past sexual misconduct allegations against political office holders and nominees in the United States.

 

VOA NEWS (NOT LIVE, DELAYED and ONE-SIDED) FACEBOOK POST:

 

 
“He began running his hands over my body and grinding into me. I yelled, hoping that someone downstairs might hear me and I tried to get away from him but his weight was heavy.”
👉 The first woman who accused Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh of sexually assaulting her decades ago provided detailed and emotional testimony Thursday before the Senate Judiciary Committee, saying she thought Kavanaugh was “going to accidently kill me” during the alleged ordeal.
Accuser Christine Blasey Ford recalled a 1982 house party that she attended along with Kavanaugh, his friend Mark Judge and others. She alleged that Kavanaugh and Judge locked her in a bedroom and that Kavanaugh forced himself on top of her.

 

https://www.voanews.com/a/kavanaugh-ford-in-hi…/4589658.html