BBG Watch Commentary
For many hours, the Voice of America (VOA) English news website was not reporting on the NYC train derailment Sunday, in which at least four people had died and 64 were injured.
UPDATE: VOA English website eventually posted a short news item on the NYC train derailment. It happened hours after the accident and long after BBC, Russian Today and other international media outlets reported it as their top news story.
The VOA news item, with very few details, made it briefly onto the VOA English website homepage and then quickly disappeared from the homepage. The NYC train derailment was still the top news story on the BBC website as of 7:30PM ET.
The VOA English news website was rarely updated during the Thanksgiving holiday weekend. As of late afternoon Sunday, the VOA’s site top U.S. news story was about a panda bear. It was also VOA’s “FEATURED STORY,” rather than any report on anti-government protests in Ukraine or the New York City train derailment.
The U.S. train derailment has been the top news on the BBC English website and one of the top news stories on the Russia Today website.
The Russia Today news report already had close to 1,000 Tweets by 1PM ET.
By 8PM ET Sunday, the Russia Today news report had over 3,700 Facebook “Likes.”
The VOA English news website has had nothing on the story many hours after the accident took place. It appears that the VOA English news website has not been updated Sunday for many hours.
As of 8PM ET Sunday, the BBC news report on the NYC train derailment had 6,654 Facebook “Likes” and 3,628 Tweets. BBC posted multiple photos, videos, and at the scene report from its correspondent.
The BBC report had 800 words.
The VOA report, which had only 169 words, had only one AP photo, no videos, and no original reporting.
As of 8PM ET Sunday, the VOA news report had 16 Facebook “Likes” and 22 Tweets.
By 8PM ET Sunday, the VOA news report disappeared even from the VOA English USA News page.
NYC is a city of immigrants and the news about the train derailment is of great interest to international audiences, as shown by BBC and Russia Today coverage.