BBG Watch Commentary
The State Department made an announcement more than an hour ago and shortly thereafter popular Voice of America Ukrainian Service TV host Myroslava Gongadze tweeted that Secretary of State John Kerry will be going to Ukraine next week. Her tweet was immediately retweeted by U.S. Ambassador to Ukraine Geoffrey Pyatt.
Gongadze’s tweet is time stamped 12:36 PM ET.
Державний секретар США Джон Кері буде в Києві наступного тижня. Я також.
— Myroslava Gongadze (@MGongadze) January 30, 2015
VOA English news website had a short report on Kerry’s planned trip about an hour later, “Kerry to Visit Ukraine, Germany | VOA.” (Original time stamp was 1:19 PM ET, but the report did not show up on the VOA English homepage until some minutes layer).
Gongadze said in her tweet (in Ukrainian) that she will be traveling to Ukraine next week, presumably to cover Kerry’s visit for VOA’s Ukrainian Service.
VOA Ukrainian Service has a report on its website on the announcement of Kerry’s trip to Ukraine. VOA Russian Service also has a report on Kerry going to Kyiv next week, but its headline was about the State Department’s condemnation of the attack on the community center in Donetsk.
“There had been speculation that Kerry would also travel to Moscow next week but State Department officials say no additional stops have been planned,” VOA State Department correspondent Pamela Dockins reported.
Державний секретар США Джон Кері буде в Києві наступного тижня. Я також.
— Myroslava Gongadze (@MGongadze) January 30, 2015
Secretary @JohnKerry will travel to Kyiv, #Ukraine, and Munich, #Germany, February 5-8. More details: http://t.co/qZRZ6J0yOR.
— Department of State (@StateDept) January 30, 2015
Matthew Russell Lee, an independent Inner City Press reporter at the United Nations whom VOA executives once tried to ban from working at the UN because of a personal dispute with a VOA correspondent, also tweeted early about Kerry’s planned trip to Ukraine.
His tweet is time stamped 12:35 PM ET. AP tweet was out at 12:34 PM ET. VOA English news online audiences did not get the news until 1:19 PM ET, but probably even later than that.
US says Kerry will travel to Kyiv, #Ukraine, on Feb 5 to meet with Poroshenko, Yatsenyuk, Klimkin. And talk of #IMF?
— Inner City Press (@innercitypress) January 30, 2015
There was a more recent tweet about Ukraine on the VOA English news homepage from VOA White House correspondent, but as of 1:30 PM ET there is still no tweet and no report on the VOA homepage on the announcement of Kerry’s trip to Ukraine. (VOA report on Kerry’s planned visit to Kyiv eventually found its way to the VOA English news homepage.)
WH spokesman says Pres Obama “continues to be reluctant” to provide direct military support to Ukraine #voaalert
— Luis Ramirez (@LuisVOA) January 30, 2015
Thank God for Myroslava Gongadze, but her tweets are not posted on VOA English news website.
Earlier, VOA had this story on its website: Kerry Fined for Not Shoveling Snow | VOA.
It’s good it did, only because some international media, including Russia’s SPUTNIK, reported widely on this silly issue.
