BBG Watch Commentary
Tuesday, the Voice of America English website instead of using its own White House reporter or other Washington-based VOA reporters posted instead a short Reuters report without video on Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff calling off plans for a state visit to Washington in October because of revelations that the United States spied on her personal communications and those of other Brazilians.
As of Tuesday night, the Reuters report on the VOA website had 0 (zero) Facebook “Likes.” Wednesday morning the Reuters report used by VOA had 1 (one) Facebook “Like.” It had less than ten Tweets, 0 (zero) Google+ and 0 (zero) comments.
As of Wednesday night, the Reuters/VOA report had 2 (two) Facebook “Likes.” During the entire day, this short and inadequate news report, especially since the story involved the United States and the White House in a major way and was posted by the Voice of America, picked up only 1 (one) Facebook “Recommendation.”
Russia Today English website had a longer report, “Brazilian president postpones visit to Washington over US spying,” with video and original reporting and analysis. As of Wednesday morning it had over 4,000 Facebook “Likes,” 516 Tweets, 116 Google+ and 66 comments. As of Wednesday night, it had over 4,100 Facebook “Likes.”
The BBC report on the same topic, “Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff calls off US trip,” was also much longer than the Reuters story on the VOA website and included video of White House spokesman Jay Carney.
The BBC report on the Brazilian President’s canceled visit to Washington showed Wednesday night 2,480 Facebook “Likes” and 957 Tweets.
We repeat that the Reuters report on the same topic showed on the VOA English website 2 (two) Facebook “Likes” and 7 (seven) Tweets, also on Wednesday night, more than 24 hours after it had been posted.
How long can VOA Director David Ensor and VOA Executive Editor Steve Redisch pretend that there is nothing wrong?
How long will VOA provide substandard news coverage even for major events involving the United States and happening in Washington?