Re: [Swprograms] More Crisis at VOA News

[jfiglio1@xxxxxxxxxxxx]

Yes, but....  :-)

Newsmax also was heavily critical of the VOA's decision to broadcast an interview with Mullah Omar, among other things, and has repeatedly come down on the side of VOA being a propaganda mouthpiece rather than a credible news source.  Indeed, it includes a link to what it calls "Radio Sawa and VOA's Other Blunders".

The cited report itself is surprisingly "down the middle", though, for a "news" service that tends to hyperventilate a lot.  But, IMHO, calling Newsmax "decidedly right wing" is decidedly too polite. :-))

John Figliozzi

----- Original Message -----
From: Richard Cuff <richard@xxxxxxxxxxx>
Date: Wednesday, July 7, 2004 5:20 pm
Subject: Re: [Swprograms] More Crisis at VOA News

> See another reference here:
> 
> http://www.newsmax.com/archives/ic/2004/7/7/130350.shtml
> 
> The Newsmax agenda is decidedly right-wing...so for them to 
> express concern
> at the muzzling of VOA is interesting.
> 
> Richard Cuff / Allentown, PA  USA
> 
> ----- Original Message ----- 
> From: "Glenn Hauser" <wghauser@xxxxxxxxx>
> To: <dxld@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>; <swprograms@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
> Sent: Tuesday, July 06, 2004 10:01 PM
> Subject: [Swprograms] More Crisis at VOA News
> 
> 
> >From upcoming DX LISTENING DIGEST 4-102:
> 
> ** U S A. Controversy at VOA continues in the wake of the decision 
> by the
> VOA
> Director, with possible support from the Broadcasting Board of 
> Governors, to
> remove VOA News Director Andre DeNesnera.
> 
> The Hill newspaper, a publication on Capitol Hill, reported that 
> VOA staff
> members had sent a petition to members of Congress protesting the 
> action,and
> accusing the BBG of "dismantling the nation's radio beacon." [below]
> 
> The petition itself was being assessed by some key members of the 
> House of
> Representatives, including the Chairman of the House International 
> RelationsCommittee, Henry Hyde, as well as others who have been 
> involved BBG
> appropriations on Capitol Hill.
> 
> As this story was developing, VOA staff received the following 
> from Ted
> Iliff,
> the former CNN manager who came to VOA in early 2004, now head of 
> CentralNews,
> and Alex Belida, announced in last week's note
> from VOA Director David Jackson, as the new Supervisory Editor of 
> VOA News
> Center:
> 
> To the News Division staff:
> 
> In the coming weeks, we intend to provide you all with up-to-date
> Broadcast schedules showing which languages are on the air, when 
> and in what
> medium. At the same time, we intend to pass along the latest
> audience data. Anyone in Central News who believes they are 
> working for a
> global, English-language audience will see why change is necessary.
> 
> Our immediate aim is to increase our regional news output to 
> provide our
> language services with more content, especially CN items. Writers and
> editors
> who may have in the past dismissed a possible item as ``not news`` 
> shouldthink
> again, judging an item`s newsworthiness only after considering 
> whether even
> a
> single service would benefit from its
> availability. They should also stop miming what is on CNN, or the BBC
> or in the Times and Post, using the news judgments of those 
> organizations as
> a
> guideline for VOA`s news priorities. Those organizations can make 
> their own
> judgments about their audiences and their needs. We should focus 
> on our
> audiences and serve them.
> 
> At the same time, we want an integrated approach with greater
> coördination between the newsroom and the language services. Some of
> these services are generating interviews and other news items which
> merit wider distribution. We will work with the services to create a
> system for harvesting their news material.
> 
> There will also be closer coordination of the work of our
> correspondents. Supervising editors will no longer be focused strictly
> on the CN output. Instead they will be working with our assignments
> staff to ensure correspondents and stringers are also targeting 
> stories our
> client services need. Correspondents will also be called on to 
> work more
> closely together to share information, passing along tips, quotes 
> and facts
> for
> insertion in another corresponden`s reports.
> 
> Our ``podland`` writers can expect to receive more direction in their
> assignments, to ensure these too are coordinated with the overall 
> news file.
> 
> Supervising editors will in addition be working with our TV staff,
> ensuring packages of video material and scripts meld with the CN 
> and CR
> output
> to meet the video broadcast needs of our services.
> 
> There will no doubt be kinks that will need to be worked out. Full
> implementation of our vision will also take time. In the meantime, we
> want to hear your suggestions for how things can be done better. 
> Pleaseemail
> them to us both. Ted and Alex (via DXLD)
> 
> VOA STAFFERS SEEK HILL PROBE, By Tom Sullivan, July 6, 2004
> http://www.thehill.com/news/070604/voa.aspx
> 
> Nearly half the staff of the Voice of America (VoA) has signed a 
> petitionthat
> will be sent to members of Congress today accusing the 
> Broadcasting Board of
> Governors of ``dismantling the nation's radio beacon`` and calling on
> Congress
> to investigate the board.
> 
> The petition also accuses the board, an independent entity 
> responsible for
> all
> government-sponsored broadcasting, of launching new services in 
> the Middle
> East
> with no editorial accountability at the expense of VoA programs 
> serving the
> same areas and cutting back on broadcasts to Eastern Europe and in 
> Englisharound the world.
> 
> ``We`re being bled white to support this expensive and ill-advised 
> operationto
> the Middle East,`` a VoA English-language editor and supervisor 
> told The
> Hill.
> The VoA employee, who said he feared reprisals if he were 
> identified, added,
> ``It`s shameful and also very sad that we`re missing an 
> opportunity to be
> doing
> what we should be doing.``
> 
> More than 460 of an estimated 1,000 VoA staff members have signed the
> petition,
> the editor said. A VoA spokesman said Friday that the agency would 
> have no
> comment since he had not yet seen the petition.
> 
> The major complaints cited in the petition involve the board`s new 
> servicesin
> the Middle East - Radio Sawa, al-Hurra and Radio Farda - which the
> signatories
> say provide inadequate news coverage and do not operate under 
> VoA`s charter,
> which guarantees balanced reporting.
> 
> The petition accuses the board of shutting down the VoA Arabic 
> Service and
> reducing resources to VoA television in the region and VoA service 
> to Iran
> in
> favor of the new broadcasting services.
> 
> Defenders of Radio Sawa and Radio Farda have said their offerings, 
> mainlymusic
> with some news, appeal to younger listeners. But the VoA editor said
> reaching
> educated people, the leaders and activists in a community, is just as
> important.
> 
> He also said the board members, with their business backgrounds, 
> place too
> much
> emphasis on achieving market share.
> 
> Alan Heil, a former VoA deputy director who helped distribute the 
> petition,agreed. ``It`s very, very important for the United States 
> to have something
> on
> the air that's more food for thought and is part of the dialogue 
> and not
> just a
> pop music service,`` he said.
> 
> Both Radio Sawa and al-Hurra have not reported important breaking news
> stories,
> according to the petition, including, in the case of Radio Sawa, 
> the capture
> of
> Saddam Hussein. What little news is reported is not produced in VoA`s
> newsroom
> but in a separate place overseen only be the board itself, the VoA 
> editorsaid.
> ``There is a lack of balance and a there is a lack of editorial 
> oversight,``he
> asserted.
> 
> While the board is launching new services to the Middle East, VoA 
> Englishbroadcasts are being crippled, the petition's supporters 
> say. The hours of
> English-language broadcasts have been reduced from 24 hours a day 
> to 19.
> Because the service is dark at times it misses important stories, 
> such as
> the
> handover of power in Iraq, Heil said.
> 
> The petitioners also expressed concerns about increasing 
> politicization of
> the
> VoA itself. Both Heil and another VoA journalist who spoke on the 
> conditionof
> anonymity said reporters and editors are convinced that the 
> demotion of
> Andre
> DeNesnera as news director in a reorganization announced Thursday is
> evidence
> that is happening.
> 
> ``He was believed [to be acting], and correctly so, as the bulwark 
> againstpoliticization of the news report,`` the journalist said.
> DeNesnera could not be reached for comment (The Hill July 6 via DXLD)
> 
> Subject: Last random note . . . . . .
> 
> I am writing my last 'random notes from the shark tank' as News 
> Director to
> thank you all for your hard work and dedication these last four 
> and a half
> years. I have greatly appreciated your professionalism, commitment and
> friendship.
> 
> The name for my office - the 'shark tank' - came, as you all know, 
> from the
> large glass wall with its view of the old newsroom. It could as 
> easily have
> been called 'the goldfish bowl' because everything that went on 
> here was
> seen
> and known by everyone. Transparency, both literal and figurative, 
> has been
> my
> leitmotif as News Director.
> 
> The last thing I would like to reiterate as I leave this job - 
> though I know
> I
> am preaching to the choir - is that our Charter is the
> cornerstone of the work we do each day. We must continue to be
> objective, to present all sides of a story and to tell the 
> unflinching,unvarnished truth. That is the basis of our 
> credibility. We cannot permit
> anyone to spin a story, omit a fact, slant a viewpoint. Though the
> government
> pays our salary, it has never bought our conscience.
> 
> Over the years we have earned our reputation by our integrity. We
> maintain it by our honesty. Our worldwide audience of listeners and
> viewers knows when we're telling the truth and when we're not. Our
> strength and steadfastness come from our Charter which requires us to
> present the news in an objective, balanced and comprehensive 
> manner. To do
> anything less is self-deception and our audience will perceive it 
> as moral
> cowardice.
> 
> It goes without saying how honored I was to be nominated by my
> colleagues for the Tex Harris Award for Constructive Dissent two years
> ago - and to receive it from the American Foreign Service 
> Association in the
> diplomatic rooms at the State Department. But the highlight of my 
> tenure as
> News Director was accepting the University of Oregon's Payne Award for
> Ethics
> in Journalism on behalf of VOA. As you know, the award itself is 
> unusual - a
> mirrored 'book' whose words can only be read by looking into the 
> mirror. The
> symbolism is eloquent. The reasons we were chosen for this 
> accolade -
> courage,
> ethics, honor - are the bedrock values of the people who work for VOA.
> 
> Though some, to this day, still cast us as a propaganda 
> organization - a
> mouthpiece of the U.S. government - the journalists in this 
> building and
> colleagues around the world know better, as does our audience. We must
> continue
> to maintain our journalistic independence and at the Voice of 
> America all
> voices must be heard. There must always be a place here for 
> constructivedissent and we must brook no tolerance for anyone who 
> would construe it as
> disloyalty, or worse, make it a punishable action or a reason for
> retaliation.
> To quote Edmund Burke, "All that is necessary for evil to triumph 
> is for
> good
> men to do nothing." Or in the words of my countryman Voltaire: "I 
> may not
> agree
> with what you say but I will defend to my death your right to say it."
> 
> I will be joining you shortly in the newsroom. It has been an 
> honor to
> serve you and work with you (Andre DeNesnera, VOA, July 6 via DXLD)
> 
> 
> 
> 
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