Someone who doesn't in fact represent or promote a specific party.
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What’s behind Trump’s fresh push to wrest control of Voice of America
- Thread starter Y2kTheNewOldies
- Start date
Someone who doesn't in fact represent or promote a specific party.
That is hard to be today. I know people who actually ask party affiliation and say something equivalent to "today I can't be friends with someone who is not behind the same party as me".
I say, "I'm registered with the New Progressive Party" and that is how I voted as soon as I was able to register to vote. That is confusing enough to diffuse the discussion.
Yes it's hard, but that's what they need to be in order to do the job properly.
All politics aside; in his tweet, Matt Armstrong (now former Board Member) is correct. The Board was very aware of the chance that the newly appointed CEO had the power to completely remake the (former) BBG/USAGM into essentially whatever they choose. Sure, there is still language requiring political neutrality, but just as FOX News used to be marketed as: "Fair and Balanced", who's to say that there is or isn't an agenda behind whatever the new editorial structure will become?
That's where the politics come in. The House will be incensed with whatever Pack does, especially if it includes bringing on other right-leaning pundits to run parts of the organization(s). And the right-wing majority Senate incensed because the House is trying to meddle with an in-place law.
Considering it doesn't involve VOA, I suspect what's behind the suit, is certain Board members being upset that some of their prior appointees and pet projects have been eliminated.
In the end the Administration gets what they wanted; Now incapacitated government-funded media organizations that will no longer be reporting potentially unfavorable news about the President outside the U.S.
That's under the best of circumstances. Under the worst, they have a government funded media organization that promotes the president's election.
Either way, how does this benefit the taxpayers?
Answer: It doesn't, except for 30% of them. Assuming there is a change in Administration by 2021, for better or worse, things should go back to the original mission(s) after another CEO is appointed.....eventually.
In the meantime, whatever happens, Congress will keep funding the organizations.
VOA has not benefited the country or taxpayers for many decades.
The whole international broadcasting thing was a post-WW II competition of "my transmitter is bigger than your transmitter". It was boring and mostly irrelevant to most listeners even when the concept was fresh.
If only a small percentage of the population, even in the most educated nations, listens to news and talk radio, it is an even smaller group that listens to VOA that is essentially a big nation telling small nations how to think.
Of course. TTBOMK nothing has changed in funding structure of any agency for some time.
I remember, in the late 90s, and ad from VOA looking to staff a 24/7 adult contemporary satellite network for Europe. I thought at the time, why is it VOA's job to have a satellite music network?
One thing to keep in mind, is that all the government-funded broadcast entities together, amount to a budgetary rounding error. Especially as compared with much more expensive "pork" projects.
Probably not at all. But there was a reason why this was done. Clearly the president believes it can help him in some way, otherwise he'd continue to ignore it as he did for the first two years.
Like most subjective things, it's about the image it presents to the world.
That immediately brought to mind the old "if a tree falls in the Forrest..."
But in this case, it's "if a tower falls in the desert..."
In the current culture, image is important. It's important for the country, and clearly its important for the president.
Gotta' start somewhere....
How about starting with all the perks given to politicians. That would be a good place. Except the politicians get to vote on that.
For similar reasons, Ted Cruz may deem it important to stifle URadio.
Biden's spokesman responds to actions related to USAGM and VOA:
https://www.vox.com/2020/6/25/21302625/joe-biden-president-voice-america-fire-michael-pack
In the article, Pack talks about how he will use VOA editorials to promote the views of the president.
https://www.vox.com/2020/6/25/21302625/joe-biden-president-voice-america-fire-michael-pack
In the article, Pack talks about how he will use VOA editorials to promote the views of the president.
What's interesting is that up until recently, the Republican party has sought to defund government funded broadcasting at the state and federal level. Chris Christie sold NJ Public Broadcasting when he was governor. Just a few months ago, the white house sought to defund CPB. So really, what this tells us is that they only want to defund broadcasting that they can't control. Once they can control the message, they're fine with spending taxpayer money. That makes their case more disingenuous. Of course, that's what politics is all about.
That's true, especially when POTUS calls commercial and public news media "The enemy of The State". According to Bolton's book, the President also commented that most reporters "should be executed." I believe there are many politicians on that side of the fence who have long wanted to control the media narrative. The current President just amplifies those feelings to 11. Most of that agenda got traction with Nixon.
If the incumbent President doesn't get reelected, there will be a new cable and streaming network started shortly after he leaves office. For just 6.99 a month, what's left of the 30% can listen to all the racist, xenophobic, narcissistic ramblings, 24/7.
Trumpism won't go away with Trump. We've got people in our state running on being the Trumpiest. Trump will probably still do rallies.
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