USAGM Watch Commentary
The day before U.S. Election Day this year, the heads of the tax-funded Voice of America (VOA) central English newsroom sent out an e-mail stating that VOA newsroom managers, editors and reporters, who are U.S. federal government employees and in some cases government contractors “have worked very hard, planning, coordinating, assigning and reporting for many months now.” Key VOA newsroom managers assured VOA employees that “We have put together an incredible body of work.”
Four years ago, however, the same VOA central English newsroom assumed that Hillary Clinton, the Democratic Party candidate in 2016 for U.S. presidency, would certainly win. As reported then by BBG Watch, the VOA newsroom did not prepare any profiles of the winning Republican Party candidate Donald Trump, but had two pre-written profiles of Hillary Clinton.
This is how BBG Watch and a few Voice of America journalists commented on VOA newsroom’s pre-election bias and lack of preparation in November 2016.
This year, the U.S. Agency for Global Media (USAGM), which is the new name for the Broadcasting Board of Governors (BBG), has a Trump-nominated and Senate confirmed CEO Michael Pack who has been in charge since June 2020 and has a three-year term. Key Obama administration era executives who were in charge in 2016, including then VOA director Amanda Bennett and then VOA deputy director Sandy Sugawara had resigned shortly before Michael Pack took over. His predecessor as CEO of the agency, John F. Lansing, resigned in September 2019 amid management and programming scandals.
BBG Watch Commentary, November 9, 2016
Some U.S. taxpayer-funded Voice of America (VOA) journalists working tonight are upset that their management, which is overseen by the Broadcasting Board of Governors (BBG), has arranged for a couple “Clinton will win” programs to be pre-written and made available for translation, but apparently failed to arrange for similar “Trump will win” programs to be pre-written so that VOA broadcasters could use them if Trump is the winner.
VOA journalists have shared with us the text of the Voice of America “Clinton will win” program and complained that they have nothing similar on Donald Trump.
“I am here at 1 AM Wednesday; we still have no pre-written ‘Trump wins piece’,” a Voice of America reporter emailed BBG Watch.
Voice of America journalists have asked us to post the script, even though neither Clinton nor Trump is a declared winner at this time (November 9, 1:15 AM), as an example of what they say is a partisan bias among some VOA and BBG managers whom they accuse of disregarding the VOA Charter.
Voice of America’s director is Amanda Bennett. John F. Lansing is BBG CEO and Director. Jeff Shell is the outgoing BBG Chairman.
BBG Watch, “Voice of America had two pre-written ‘Clinton will win programs’; none for Trump, VOA staffers say,” November 9, 2019.
New Voice of America Director Robert Reilly Promises to Resist Political Pressure
USAGM Watch Commentary In a message today to Voice of America (VOA) staff, new VOA director Robert Reilly, recently appointed by U.S. Agency for Global Media (USAGM) CEO Michael Pack, promised that he will follow the VOA Charter and “will resist any political pressure from above that would compromise our mission and the integrity of […]
Former Voice of America Head Robert Reilly Was Chosen By USAGM CEO Michael Pack To Return As VOA Director
USAGM Watch Commentary USAGM Watch has learned that former Voice of America (VOA) director Robert Reilly was chosen by Michael Pack, Trump-appointed and Senate-confirmed CEO of U.S. Agency for Global Media (USAGM), to again assume the position of the VOA director which was left vacant after the resignation last June of Amanda Bennett. She was […]
USAGM CEO Michael Pack, His Critics, Analyses by Former and Current VOA Journalists
USAGM Watch Commentary Michael Pack, Trump-appointed and U.S. Senate confirmed CEO of the U.S. Agency for Global Media (USAGM), is being criticized right and left, but his explanations are rarely mentioned in mainstream media reports, which generously repeat accusations and claims of his critics but omit to mention alleged conflicts of interest and accusations made […]
2016 Report Confirmed Problem of Political Bias At Voice of America
OPINION Trump USAGM CEO Michael Pack Was Attacked For Attempts to Focus on Problem by Dan Robinson It was May of 2016 and Amanda Bennett was only a few weeks into what would become a nearly four year stint as director of the Voice of America, among the “plum” jobs in Washington, D.C. Bennett was […]
SIDEBAR: Where 2016 Consultant Report Recommendations Missed The Mark
USAGM Watch Commentary EDITOR’S NOTE: A USAGM staffer reacts to key aspects of the Executive Summary of the 2016 consultant report solicited by and submitted to former VOA director Amanda Bennett. The full report, paid for by U.S. taxpayers, has not been found and produced by the agency despite repeated requests by journalists. Bias in […]
USAGM & Transition Team Work Plan and Requests EXCLUSIVE
USAGM Watch Commentary USAGM Watch has received a copy of “USAGM & Transition Work Plans and Request,” which was reportedly sent to the senior management of the U.S. Agency for Global Media (USAGM) by the Biden USAGM transition team headed by Richard Stengel, former Under Secretary of State for Public Diplomacy and Public Affairs during […]
Voice of America Between A Firewall and Accountability
USAGM Watch OPINION and COMMENTARY By Ted Lipien What is more important: protecting Voice of America (VOA) U.S. federal government employees and contractors working as journalists from policy influence of administration officials, or protecting U.S. citizens and foreign audiences from foreign propaganda and U.S. domestic partisan bias when VOA directors, managers editors and reporters help […]
Native Americans, 2020 Elections, and Voice of America
USAGM Watch Commentary Many U.S. news media outlets have reported that President Trump may have lost at least some states in the 2020 presidential election and Democratic Party candidates may have won some congressional and state races because Native Americans voted overwhelmingly against Trump and against Republicans. In politics, politicians usually get what they deserve, […]
Exposing’Rot’ at USAGM May Be More Likely in Liberal Media with Trump Out and Biden In
USAGM Watch Commentary Liberal U.S. media outlets, or if one prefers to call them left-leaning, were reluctant to investigate and expose journalistic abuses and violations of government laws and regulations at the $800 million U.S. Agency for Global Media (USAGM), which had occurred under the previous Obama era leadership, because such investigations and reporting might […]
Biden Ignored VOA and RFE/RL in His Article on Russian Propaganda, Needs to Reform USAGM
USAGM Watch Commentary While President-Elect Joe Biden has been a strong longtime supporter of U.S. international broadcasting, especially Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty (RFE/RL) which is incorporated in Delaware, his home state, and is expected to continue to support U.S. media outreach abroad, he was apparently not impressed in 2017 by the former senior […]
My Question for Voice of America
OPINION By Ted Lipien I don’t engage in U.S. partisan politics and do not support one U.S. presidential candidate over another. As of Friday morning, November 6, 2020, we still don’t know who will win this year’s U.S. presidential election although Biden is reported to have a slight lead in vote counting in Pennsylvania, where […]
Will Voice of America Campaign Video Help Biden Win Michigan?
USAGM Commentary This BBGWatch.com (USAGM – BBG Watch) video is about the Voice of America (VOA) Urdu Service one-sided social media presentation of a Joe Biden campaign video which violated the VOA Charter (U.S. law) and may influence how some Muslim Americans vote in the 2020 U.S. presidential election. The Voice of America Charter (U.S. Public Law 94-350) says […]
Voice of America Newsroom Was Certain on Election Night 2016 Hillary Clinton Would Win
USAGM Watch Commentary The day before U.S. Election Day this year, the heads of the tax-funded Voice of America (VOA) central English newsroom sent out an e-mail stating that VOA newsroom managers, editors and reporters, who are U.S. federal government employees and in some cases government contractors “have worked very hard, planning, coordinating, assigning and […]
Obama-Biden White House Used Voice of America for Political Publicity with No Protests from VOA, Liberal Media or Congress
USAGM Watch Commentary There were no protests from the Voice of America (VOA) English central newsroom reporters, liberal media or most members of Congress when officials working for then Vice President Joe Biden in the Obama White House used VOA and its journalists for political publicity in Ukraine and in the United States with the […]
Voice of America Needed Prodding to Report on Hunter Biden New York Post Story
USAGM Watch Commentary It took prodding from outside journalists to get Voice of America (VOA) central English newsroom editors to post a news story about Twitter’s and Facebook’s blocks on the New York Post article about alleged e-mails from Ukraine related to Joe Biden’s son Hunter Biden. Even when VOA posted its first news item […]
Plaintiff In Press Freedom Lawsuit Fired Voice of America Journalists
USAGM Watch Commentary In her October 9, 2020 report, “Lawsuit Calls for Immediate Relief from USAGM CEO’s Actions,” Voice of America (VOA) “Press Freedom Reporter” Jessica Jerreat wrote that according to a lawsuit filed in a federal court in Washington on Thursday, “From the start of his tenure as CEO of the U.S. Agency for […]
Outgoing HFAC Chair Eliot Engel Calls for Firing of USAGM CEO Michael Pack
USAGM Watch Commentary Representative Eliot L. Engel (D-NY), outgoing Chairman of the House Committee on Foreign Affairs, called for Trump-appointerd and Senate-confirmed CEO of the U.S. Agency for Global Media (USAGM) Michael Pack “to resign or be fired.” Engel Statement on USAGM Officials Breaching the “Firewall” and Targeting VOA Journalist October 5, 2020 Bronx, NY—Representative Eliot L. […]
McCaul Statement on Subpoena for USAGM CEO Michael Pack
USAGM Watch Commentary The House Foreign Affairs Committee issued a subpoena for the testimony of USAGM CEO Michael Pack after Pack cancelled his scheduled appearance before the committee on September 24th. The agency said in a tweet that “A conflict arose with the original hearing date due to the evolution of pressing and unprecedented matters […]
Domestic Propaganda By Voice of America Can Skew Election Results
OPINION By The Federalist Partisan domestic propaganda by the federally-funded and government-managed Voice of America (VOA) can skew U.S. election results. Congress should take action to defund all Voice of America programs which violate the VOA Charter ban on such domestic propaganda activities by federal employees and contractors. There was a time when VOA had […]
Voice of America Election News 1996 – 2020 Went From Balance to Bias
USAGM Watch Commentary The U.S. taxpayer-funded Voice of America (VOA) in the $800 million U.S. Agency for Global Media (USAGM) used to follow its VOA Charter in reporting on U.S. presidential elections. The charter, which is U.S. law, mandates that “VOA will represent America, not any single segment of American society, and will therefore present […]
Link: https://bbgwatch.com/bbgwatch/voice-of-america-newsroom-was-certain-on-election-night-2016-hillary-clinton-would-win/
