BBG Watch Commentary
UPDATE: Shortly after we posted this account, VOA English News has finally corrected its mistake after 8PM Saturday. The corrected report still erroneously states that it was last updated at 10:20 AM, which is incorrect. The title of the report was also changed to “McCain in Kyiv Ahead of Dueling Rallies” from “Ukraine President Suspends Officials over Protest Crackdown,” but the change of the title and the correction did not happen until the evening. No updates or corrections to the original report were done all day. A Google search shows that the updated and corrected VOA news report on McCain visit was posted Saturday evening between 8PM and 9PM ET.
VOA News neither explained nor apologized for its mistake.The Reuters report on the VOA website still has not been corrected as of 9PM. The VOA Russian Service and other VOA language services have still not corrected their reports on Senator McCain as of 9PM ET.
Incredibly, as of 8PM ET, the Voice of America’s (VOA) main English news website still shows a VOA News report and another report from Reuters with wrong information about Senator McCain’s visit to Ukraine. Both reports on the VOA website say that Senator McCain will be in Kyiv on Sunday when in fact he has already spent a full day there and held numerous meetings in the Ukrainian capital. Senator Chris Murphy (D – CT) is planning to join him in Kyiv on Sunday, according to reports.
Even in posting its report that Senator McCain was planning a trip to Ukraine, in which it got the date wrong, VOA English News was hours behind such media outlets as The Daily Beast, RT, and Voice of Russia, which reported the news much earlier and did not make the same mistake as VOA.
BBC, RT (Russia Today), Voice of Russia, Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty (RFE/RL), and numerous other international and U.S. media have reported hours ago on Senator McCain’s full day of meetings in Kyiv.
Senator McCain’s Twitter account shows photos of him meeting with pro-Europe protesters, Ukrainian opposition figures, and with Patriarch Filaret, leader of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church’s Kyivan Patriarchate.
VOA’s Ukrainian Service was also reporting on his visit in Kyiv during the day. But other VOA language services, including the Russian Service, have posted the same wrong information as being reported by VOA English News.
Obviously no one in the VOA English Central Newsroom or on the VOA web desk during the day was checking the Internet, which was full of information and news reports about Senator McCain’s visit to Kyiv on Saturday. No one also bothered to check with the VOA Ukrainian Service, which had the correct information. Also no one in the VOA Russian Service was checking the Internet for the latest news about Senator McCain. We do not blame individual VOA employees. They may very well be underpaid contractors working from home at night and on weekends. We blame VOA and International Broadcasting Bureau (IBB) for creating such a dysfunctional system.
VOA central news services did not bother to check Senator McCain’s Twitter account, where information about his day in Kyiv was available, and obviously did not use it or any of the photos.
Greeting protesters upon our arrival in #Kiev today #Ukraine pic.twitter.com/shHMm44EhL
— John McCain (@SenJohnMcCain) December 14, 2013
With Vitali's younger brother and #boxing champ Wladimir Klitschko at the Maidan #euromaidan #ukraine pic.twitter.com/1eF89pbohT
— John McCain (@SenJohnMcCain) December 14, 2013
Honored to meet with Patriarch Filaret, leader of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church's Kyivan Patriarchate #Ukraine pic.twitter.com/6iI2k4Kj6H
— John McCain (@SenJohnMcCain) December 14, 2013
Incredibly, the mistake was not being corrected, no apology has been issued, and a VOA English News report posted Saturday morning was still not updated as of 8PM ET. [The update finally happened between 8PM and 9PM ET.]
We received the following commentary from one of our contributors:
“In view of the current chaos and confusion and what seems to be incompetence, the VOICE OF AMERICA is slowly abdicating the worldwide news and information business. Quite possibly, that virus will infect the VOA language services as well.
Whether this is a sin of mere omission or blatant commission (as a basis for first denigrating and then dissolving VOA especially in view of the fact that a new structure for the BBG is under discussion on the Hill) is unknown. Suffice it to say that it has to be coming from the very top echelons of the VOA and the International Broadcasting Bureau which, one could safely say, is issuing wrongheaded directions to whomever is left among the rank-and-file. Plain and simple, it’s dereliction of duty.
In view of the many international crises throughout the world and the VOICE OF AMERICA’s obligation, under its Charter, to report on, what is top management and the bloated broadcasting bureaucracy doing? Figuring out new metrics? Fiddling around with PowerPoint presentations? Preparing meaningless press releases on the effectiveness of U.S. international broadcasting? Organizing hot chocolate parties or beer bashes at the local saloon to improve employee morale?
The culprits in the chain of command responsible for this chaos and confusion in a once-venerable institution should immediately be placed on administrative leave while a GAO or congressional investigation commences.”