BBG Watch Commentary
When U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry spoke Sunday morning on American TV interview programs about Russia’s aggression in Ukraine, U.S. taxpayer-funded Voice of America (VOA) devoted only 69 words to describe his comments and did not post a separate news report on its English language news website, but inserted them into an old news story.
Voice of Russia, funded by the Kremlin, did better. It had a separate report on Kerry’s comments and devoted 144 words to describe them.
Al Jazeera did not devote a separate report to Kerry’s comments, but it highlighted them and gave him 254 words compared to VOA’s 69 words.
Ukraine ‘on the brink of disaster’, Al Jazeera
This is all that VOA has initially reported on Kerry’s Sunday TV interviews (this has not changed on the VOA website for more than 3 hours):
VOA: In Washington, Secretary of State John Kerry on Sunday condemned Russia’s “incredible act of aggression” in Ukraine and threatened economic sanctions by the United States and allies to isolate Moscow, but called for a peaceful resolution to the crisis.
“You just don’t in the 21st century behave in 19th century fashion by invading another country on completely trumped up pre-text,” Kerry told the CBS program “Face the Nation.” Ukraine Orders Full Mobilization as Crimea Turns to Russia, VOA
Voice of Russia gave Kerry a separate report. While it was not long and comprehensive, Voice of Russia report on Kerry had 144 words.
Russia may lose its place in G8 if doesn’t change its stance on Crimea – Kerry, Voice of Russia
It took VOA many hours to report on Kerry’s earlier, Saturday statement on Ukraine.
A first VOA report on Kerry’s Saturday statement did not appear until Sunday morning. Voice of Russia also reported on Kerry’s Saturday statement before Voice of America had anything on it on its website. VOA’s Ukrainian and Russian services also failed to report on Kerry’s Saturday statement right away.