BBG Watch has learned that as of last Tuesday, Broadcasting Board of Governors (BBG) executive and public relations staff, now working for International Broadcasting Bureau (IBB) Director Richard Lobo, still have not answered the letter sent to BBG members on April 4, 2012 by Mrs. Annette Lantos, a highly respected human rights advocate who was the wife of the late Democratic Congressman Tom Lantos. Her letter included a powerful plea to the Broadcasting Board of Governors to give up its plans to end some of the Voice of America (VOA) broadcasts to Tibet and China and to restore radio and television broadcasts to Russia, which the BBG ended in...

BBG Watch Commentary Sources told BBG Watch that in the face of strong internal and external criticism, some Broadcasting Board of Governors (BBG) members and executives keep changing details of their plans for creating a new CEO position at the BBG. Top officials of the BBG’s International Broadcasting Bureau (IBB), headed by Director Richard Lobo, are still maintaining secrecy while promoting legislative changes described by critics as designed to limit Congressional scrutiny and oversight. A top executive advised BBG members not to discuss the latest proposals with anyone outside of the Board, including the proposed elimination of the requirement that the CEO position be Presidentially-appointed and Senate-confirmed, a source...

BBG Watch has learned that the Broadcasting Board of Governors (BBG) has wasted thousands of dollars of taxpayers’ money last week by playing house music instead of radio news and information to China. Music was played because BBG, IBB, and VOA executives failed to train the staff for the switch from two hours of Voice of America live Mandarin radio broadcasts originating in a radio studio to repeat programming without news being played automatically from pre-recorded audio files. VOA China Branch journalists argued strongly against this change and demanded that at the very least the BBG should allow the two repeat hours have five minute live newscasts. Such live...

PDF file Broadcasting Board of Governors Fiscal year 2012 enacted level: $747,130,000 Fiscal year 2013 request: $720,149,000 Committee recommendation: $747,130,000 Change from request: +$26,981,000 Change from enacted level: $0 In addition, the fiscal year 2012 enacted level includes funds under this heading in title VTII designated OCO/GWOT pursuant to the Balanced Budget and Emergency Deficit Control Act of 1985. The Committee recommendation includes $747,130,000 under this heading to carry out United States international communications activities and operations overseen by the Broadcasting Board of Governors (BBG), of which, $740,100,000 is for international broadcasting operations and $7,030,000 is for broadcasting capital improvements. INTERNATIONAL BROADCASTING OPERATIONS The Committee recommendation for International Broadcasting...

Rep. Dana Rohrabacher accuses the Broadcasting Board of Governors (BBG) of being “opaque in its decision making and incredibility tone deaf to Congressional priorities,” especially on Voice of America (VOA) broadcasting to China, but a senior official of the BBG’s International Broadcasting Bureau (IBB) dismissed Congressman Rohrabacher’s “implication” as “inaccurate.” In a letter addressed to Rep. Kay Granger, the Chairman of the House Committee on Appropriations Subcommittee on State, Foreign Operations, and Related Programs, and to the Ranking Member Rep. Nita Lowey, Congressman Dana Rohrabacher (R – CA) blasts the Broadcasting Board of Governors (BBG) for ignoring Congressional directives on Voice of America broadcasting to China and other Asian...

Commentary Broadcasting Board of Governors CEO – Chief Execution Officer by The Federalist The Broadcasting Board of Governors (BBG), and more importantly in this case the bonus-mongering staff of the International Broadcasting Bureau (IBB), continues with their push to seize and arrogate to themselves US international broadcasting with new criteria for its chief executive officer: neither nominated by the President nor confirmed by the US Senate.   As BBG Watch contributor “Quo Vadis” notes:   “The BBG Executive Staff wants no congressional scrutiny. No controls. No oversight. No nasty Inspector Generals poking around. No accountability to the US taxpayers. Above all, they want no pesky questions from the governing...

Had the Broadcasting Board of Governors (BBG) succeeded in implementing its 2011 plan to terminate all Voice of America (VOA) radio and satellite television broadcasts in Mandarin and Cantonese to China, this simulcast satellite TV/shortwave radio interview with Reggie Littlejohn and Chen Guangcheng would not be possible. BBG and IBB executives who argued for ending these broadcasts claimed that interviews such as this one could still be placed on the Internet. The fact is that VOA news websites in Mandarin and Cantonese are effectively blocked in China. A long video interview requires a good and expensive Internet connection. Hundreds of millions of Chinese don’t have it, but even if...

The Russian English-language newspaper The Moscow Times reported on the Voice of America Russian Service interview with Republican U.S. Senator John McCain, in which McCain criticized President Vladimir Putin for a recent crackdown on protesters, as well as for oligarchy, corruption and activities in the Baltics and Ukraine. U.S. Senator Slams Putin for Protest Crackdown Strangely, a search of the Voice of America main English website has not produced any news items, reports, or mentions of this VOA Russian Service interview with Senator McCain. Shortlink for this post: http://wp.me/p1PTlq-3TF

BBG Watch was forwarded a response by the Broadcasting Board of Governors (BBG) Director of Communications and External Affairs Lynne Weil who takes issue with the BBG Watch commentary published last Friday, this BBG Watch commentary, published Monday, and an opinion piece by one of our guest commentators Edite Lynch.  While BBG Watch, which is published by a group of current and former BBG employees, stands by our opinions and our conviction that creating a CEO position at the BBG that is not subject to confirmation by the U.S. Senate will dangerously erode Congressional oversight of the agency and accountability by BBG officials, we are happy to publish Ms....

BBG Watch was forwarded a response by the Broadcasting Board of Governors (BBG) Director of Communications and External Affairs Lynne Weil who takes issue with a BBG Watch commentary published last Friday, another BBG Watch commentary, published Monday, and this opinion piece by one of our guest commentators Edite Lynch.  While BBG Watch, which is published by a group of current and former BBG employees, stands by our opinions and our conviction that creating a CEO position at the BBG that is not subject to confirmation by the U.S. Senate will dangerously erode Congressional oversight of the agency and accountability by BBG officials, we are happy to publish Ms....