BBG Watch Commentary
Ted Lipien, a former VOA acting associate director who is one of the co-founders and supporters of BBG Watch, has an op-ed in today’s Washington Examiner on the Voice of America coverage of the Iranian protests and the VOA senior management’s threat to fire three Mandarin Service journalists over the April 2017 interview with Chinese whistleblower businessman Guo Wengui. The Voice of America is managed by the Broadcasting Board of Governors (BBG) federal agency.
He is urging President Trump to “immediately nominate a new BBG CEO who, unlike the current Obama-era appointees at the agency, would be vetted and confirmed by the U.S. Senate and stay clear of domestic partisan politics.” The op-ed also calls on the White House and the Congress to “act quickly in a bipartisan fashion to restore order and effectiveness to U.S. international broadcasting and digital media outreach.”
READ MORE: Voice of America’s failure in Iran and China. Opinion by Ted Lipien. Washington Examiner, January 24, 2018.