BBG Watch Commentary
BBG Media Highlights are compiled, posted and sent out to subscribers by the staff of the Broadcasting Board of Governors (BBG). They sometimes do not include media articles critical of the U.S. international broadcasting management.
BBG Watch occasionally posts “BBG Media Highlights” if there is a particularly interesting content, such as this one:
— NBC interviews Voice of America journalist and Yazidi activist Dakhil Shammo on the situation in Iraq.
Today’s BBG Media Highlights show examples of outstanding work by individual journalists working under the Broadcasting Board of Governors.
But many of these journalists are also struggling because of the lack of leadership, effective management, guidance, support and resources from senior Voice of America (VOA) and agency executives. The VOA Kurdish Service, for example, was not provided by the management with guidance, support and resources at the most critical moment last week during the refugee humanitarian crisis in Iraq. Thousands of the refugees are Kurdish speakers.
SEE: White House meeting with Yazidi leaders gets one sentence on Voice of America English website, BBG Watch, August 9, 2014.
Voice of America Kurdish Service Facebook Page Not Updated for 11 Hours, BBG Watch, August 9, 2014.
Voice of America Kurdish Service Did Not Post New Tweets for 10 Hours Despite Humanitarian Tragedy in Iraq, BBG Watch, August 9, 2014.
Voice of America Kurdish Service has no homepage story on Obama hours after statement on Kurdish refugees in Iraq, BBG Watch, August 9, 2014.
Voice of America snubs White House aide Ben Rhodes speaking on VOA’s future, Russia’s RT had a report, BBG Watch, August 15, 2014.
CUSIB’s ANN NOONAN: management meltdown at the Voice of America, BBG Watch, August 15, 2014.
We observed today, August 18, 2014, 10:00AM EDT, that the “BBG in the Media” page on the official BBG website, which includes “BBG Media Highlights,” has not been updated since January 2014, yet another example of the failing International Broadcasting Bureau (IBB) management, the bureacracy in charge of support for the BBG and its broadcasters.
IBB’s Communications and External Affairs staff has increased by 70% in the last seven years to 12 listed positions in FY 2014, while numerous VOA broadcasts and journalistic positions have been cut. (All IBB staff positions, not counting contractors, have increased by 34% during the same time.) As late as two weeks ago, the IBB bureaucracy even wanted to cut VOA Kurdish shortwave radio transmissions.
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