BBG Watch Commentary
At 00:38 GMT, or 8:38 PM Friday Eastern Time (ET), Russia’s RT reported the German police statement that “the shooter [in the Munich massacre] was an 18-year-old German-Iranian who lived in the country for over two years and whose motives ‘are still unclear’.”
BBC News reported the same at 9:43 PM Friday, Eastern Time (ET).
As of 11:34 PM Friday, Eastern Time (ET), U.S. taxpayer-funded Voice of America has not updated its report on the VOA English News website for over two hours (since 9:24 PM ET) and is not reporting on the identity of the Munich shooter, widely reported by other media. VOA is overseen by the federal Broadcasting Board of Governors (BBG). VOA’s annual budget is $224 million (FY 2017).
The post on the Munich shooting on the Voice of America News Facebook page also has not been updated for over 3 (three) hours.
After some activity during the business hours in Washington, VOA has, once again, reverted to its old weekend nighttime late and limited news coverage.
VOA was also far behind BBC and RT in initial reporting on the story. BBC posted a report around 11:00 AM ET. VOA was finally up on front page with Breaking News icon on the Munich at 12:55 PM ET. In contrast to BBC and RT, the initial VOA story was very short and was a pick up of AP.
UPDATE
As of 11:34 PM ET, the Voice of America news report on the Munich massacre still has not been updated (since 9:24 PM ET. Unlike BBC, RT and Germany’s Deutsche Welle, VOA still has not reported on the German police statement which identified the gunman as a German-Iranian and said that his motive was unclear.
It is now three (3) hours since the VOA Facebook page has been updated. The Facebook VOA post has a wrong casualty figure. The VOA report on the Munich massacre has not been updated for over two (2) hours.
