Commentary
Executives running the International Broadcasting Bureau (IBB) and the Voice of America (VOA) federal agency are a threat to U.S. national security by promoting imbecile video productions that are likely to enrage fundamentalists in the Muslim world, a BBG Watch commentator has concluded after watching a promotional video released by VOA.
While other elements reporting to the Broadcasting Board of Governors (BBG), including well-managed Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty (RFE/RL) and Radio Free Asia (RFA), as well as many individual VOA journalists, are still producing excellent news reports, officials in charge of IBB and VOA — the core federal agency — are destroying U.S. public diplomacy image abroad and wasting U.S. taxpayers’ money on infantile zombie videos — money that could be better used for effective news media outreach abroad to strengthen U.S. national security or on helping Americans experiencing economic hardships.
The VOA zombie video is not an aberration. It is a direct result of the strategic plan and marketing policies being pushed by IBB officials and some VOA executives on journalists, who at the Voice of America are less able to resist such pressures than at RFE/RL or RFA, although these entities are also effectively starved for resources by the IBB bureaucracy.
The best thing the U.S. Congress could do for U.S. international media outreach and public diplomacy abroad is to close down the IBB bureacracy, take away and divide its resources, and demand that the Broadcasting Board of Governors carry out immediate management reforms at the Voice of America. In addition to producing a zombie video, those responsible for VOA have recently failed twice to stream President Obama’s addresses on Ukraine, allowed posting a fake interview with an anti-Putin Russian politician, and caused a scandal in the Baltic states as the Ukraine-Russia crisis was growing by a mistranslation from a book by former U.S. Secretary of Defense Robert Gates.
VOA can’t even post timely significant news updates in English and many foreign languages. VOA Ukrainian and Russian services have not been given resources by the management to promptly update their websites and social media pages. We now know on what kind of projects VOA and IBB executives have been spending U.S. taxpayers’ money in addition for paying for their salaries, bonuses, and enormous support and administrative staff.
International Broadcasting Bureau – Ripping Off The American Taxpayer 24/7 – Information War Lost: Zombies at IBB – VOA Federal Agency
By The Federalist
Bureaucrats of the International Broadcasting Bureau (IBB) and Voice of America (VOA) talk trash.
All the time.
They want you to believe they are part of the US Government national security apparatus.
They are not.
In reality, these bureaucrats are a threat to US national security. A serious threat. The kind of threat that both enrages and inspires fundamentalists. Keep in mind that the same executives are also ultimately responsible for U.S. news programs to Russia, Ukraine, China, and Afghanistan.
The latest example is a promotional video for a television program in Urdu to Pakistan titled “Zindagi 360.” We watched the video supplied by our editors and featured in a WND exclusive investigative report: U.S. GOVERNMENT: AMERICANS ARE ‘KILLER ZOMBIES’-‘Uncle Sam’ portrayed as bloodthirsty cannibal Steve Peacock, WND and a BBG Watch commentary: What’s worse – Voice of America zombie promo for Pakistan or its video of well-stocked food shops and fat kids in starving North Korea? BBG Watch.
To put it mildly, we and our sources went ballistic, watching a video with imbecilic and moronic skits involving characters dressed as blood-thirsty “zombies.” One of them was a zombie dressed as Uncle Sam.
In a February 2014 staff meeting, IBB announced that the agency will reduce its radio broadcasts to Pakistan. To be replaced by – this?!?
Pakistan is a country in crisis. It struggles between secular, educated elites and virulent fundamentalist believers.
Remember: there are many in Pakistan (and the rest of the Arab and Muslim world) who believe from their perspective that Osama bin Laden is both hero and martyr. This “Zindagi 360” promotional video goes a very long way toward cementing those views. The video is inspirational: validating fundamentalist hatred toward the United States, a perfect intersection with US drone strikes in highly fundamentalist regions of Pakistan.
Bloodthirsty “zombies” translates into bloodthirsty Americans.
At the same time, it insults the educated and intelligent among Pakistanis.
We go back to a statement made by David Ensor, the Voice of America (VOA) director who declared early-on in his tenure that there was “no going back” after the changes to agency programming were put in place.
This is a perfect example of Ensor’s “new VOA:”
A piece of infantile high school humor video production in the hands of zombies who have destroyed the agency’s core mission codified in the VOA Charter.
There is no rehabilitating this organization in its current IBB – VOA federal agency combination. It is dysfunctional and defunct. It has no intelligent approach to dealing with global publics who have increasingly negative views toward the United States and who are not infantile and stupid even in the youngest age brackets.
It’s time to get rid of the Zombies running this federal agency or close it. Permanently.
It’s time for resignations. At the top of the list: David Ensor and Steve Redisch (the VOA executive editor), the two people who ultimately approve this kind of programming rubbish.
It is also time to question the “leadership” of the International Broadcasting Bureau and the Broadcasting Board of Governors (BBG):
- Are members of the board aware of these program decisions?
- Have members of the board approved these idiotic program decisions?
- Have IBB executives seen and approved these idiotic programs?
If the answer is “yes” to any of these questions, their resignations are in order as well.
Those of us who take al-Qaeda seriously (which the IBB – VOA federal agency apparatus does not) know that this kind of programming is a gold mine for the jihadists: bloodthirsty Americans, juxtaposed with images of villages destroyed by US drone strikes and any other symbol of US aggression (in their view) toward traditional cultures. Perfect recruiting tools across the entire Arab and Muslim world.
A message to Members of Congress: do something constructive with the $750-million dollars represented by the agency’s budget. Take that money and provide education tax credits to American families, many of whom only have about one thousand dollars in savings, and give it to US funded journalistic entities that are well-managed and take their mission seriously.
Get rid of the Zombies running this federal IBB – VOA agency or close it.
The Federalist
March 2014