Voice of America has two sentences on Russia’s move today in Ukraine, Voice of Russia and RT have multiple new reports and commentaries

BBG Watch Commentary

U.S. taxpayer-funded Voice of America (VOA) has only two sentences on the VOA English website about the decision of the upper house of the Russian parliament to approve President Putin’s request to use military force in Ukraine.

This basically represents the only  new Voice of America news reporting Saturday on the situation in Ukraine as of noon EST.

VOA was well behind Al Jazeera, BBC, Deutsche Welle, RT, Voice of Russia and other international media outlets in reporting this news. When it did, VOA offered only two sentences.

Voice of Russia has posted Saturday multiple new reports and commentaries on the situation in Ukraine, as did Russia’s RT multimedia outlet, both funded by the Kremlin.

VOA is also not reporting that Russian senators voted to recall Russia’s ambassador from the U.S. over President Obama’s Friday speech on Ukraine, which VOA barely covered and did not immediately post video from the White House. Both BBC and DW did.

VOA, which is charged with informing foreign audiences about international and U.S. news and U.S. policies, did not report Friday on a second phone call in two days between U.S. Vice President Joe Biden and Ukrainian Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk. In the phone call on Friday, February 28, which followed a phone call on Thursday, February 27, Vice President Biden “reaffirm[ed] the United States’ strong support for the new government and our commitment to the sovereignty, territorial integrity, and democratic future of Ukraine.”

VOA has no correspondent at the White House and its executives appear to be enjoying their weekend at home without making any arrangements for the news emergency over Russia’s military intervention in Ukraine.

The Only New Reporting on Russia’s Moves in Ukraine Saturday Morning From VOA News: The Russian parliament has approved President Vladimir Putin’s request to use the Russian military in Ukraine’s Crimea region, further raising tensions between the neighbors.

Saturday’s vote made official what Ukrainian authorities have described as an ongoing deployment of Russian troops in Crimea.

 

VOA did not even specify that it was the upper house of Russia’s parliament that voted for this request.

Voice of Russia Reports and Commentaries Saturday