Breaking news: Walter Isaacson stepping down as Broadcasting Board of Governors Chairman

BBG Watch, the independent BBG employee website, is reporting that the Broadcasting Board of Governors Chairman Walter Isaacson is stepping down from his BBG position.

According to Isaacson’s email to his senior staff, he informed the White House about his decision and said that he is involved in a new writing project. Isaacson is the author of a highly popular biography of Steve Jobs.

While under Isaacson’s leadership, the Broadcasting Board of Governors has been criticized for proposing to end Voice of America radio and television broadcasts to China. The BBG executive staff was said to be responsible for this proposal which was subsequently blocked by both Democrats and Republicans in Congress.

Isaacson is a former CNN executive. During his tenure at the BBG, several former CNN employees were hired to fill key managerial positions. Some of them proved to be highly controversial. Isaacson’s former CNN associate Steven Korn, who was hired to be President of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, called some of the experienced RFE/RL managers “old white guys” and joked about hiring “a cute high school intern.” Korn replaced and changed titles of some of the longtime journalists at RFE/RL and placed a non-journalist in charge of media content.

Former CNN correspondent David Ensor who became the Voice of America director is considered to be a good choice with strong experience in journalism and broadcasting.

Isaacson was supportive of promoting greater transparency at the Broadcasting Board of Governors but he also supported and kept the old management team which has been consistently rated in official government-wide employee surveys as being the worst in leadership and management knowledge among all similar federal agencies.

The BBG reorganization plan was developed during Isaacson’s tenure by the same BBG management team that exposed him to criticism in Congress and among various media freedom and human rights groups which support U.S. international broadcasting and have been critical of the BBG-proposed programming cuts to countries without free media.

Isaacson was forced to compromise with the BBG senior Republican member Ambassador Victor Ashe to get unanimous approval of BBG members for the reorganization plan. Ashe, who has been highly critical of the BBG senior staffers and blamed them for low employee morale, said publicly that “the devil is in the details” of the plan to reorganize U.S. international broadcasting and announced that he plans to monitor closely its further development and implementation.

Sources told BBG Watch that Ashe appreciated, however, Isaacson’s willingness to compromise and to support transparency. Critics charge that many of the elements of the reorganization plan were designed by the BBG senior executives to increase their own bureaucratic power and to limit Congressional and public scrutiny. The plan in it’s current form, according to these critics, will seriously undermine public control and even ownership of critical national security assets. Critics in Congress have criticized the BBG for lacking accountability and transparency.

The independent Committee for U.S. International Broadcasting (CUSIB), which supports media freedom abroad and was opposed to the Broadcasting Board of Governors (BBG) plans to end Voice of America (VOA) radio and television broadcasts to China, has issued a statement on the announced resignation of the BBG Chairman Walter Isaacson. The statement says that the Committee for U.S. International Broadcasting expects that the vacancy left by Chairman Walter Isaacson will be filled with someone who shares CUSIB’s mission of supporting journalism that promotes media freedom and human rights and will call for greater transparency and accountability by the Broadcasting Board of Governors.

Former Voice of America executive Ted Lipien, who is now a director of the Committee for U.S. International Broadcasting, told BBG Watch that Isaacson should be applauded for his efforts to increase transparency at the BBG. “We appreciate Mr. Isaacson’s invitation to CUSIB Executive Director Ann Noonan to attend the BBG meeting earlier this month,” Lipien said. He added, however, that Isaacson seemed too distracted during his tenure and did not keep a sufficiently close watch on the BBG/IBB management team, which led him astray on the China plan and produced a reorganization proposal that risks removing U.S. international broadcasting from public ownership and scrutiny.

BBG Watch has heard unconfirmed rumors that the International Broadcasting Bureau (IBB) Director Richard Lobo is being considered as Isaacson’s replacement. Lobo was appointed to his current position by President Obama. IBB is part of the BBG structure. If Lobo is nominated and confirmed as a new BBG chairman, he would have to give up his position as IBB director, but none of this information has been confirmed, BBG Watch sources caution.

Richard Lobo and his wife Caren are friends with Barack and Michelle Obama. The First Lady was this week at a reception for President Obama’s supporters at the Lobos’ house in Sarasota, Florida. One BBG Watch analyst observed that giving out BBG jobs to political supporters and former CNN employees without proper qualifications is a further sign of a deep crisis in U.S. international broadcasting.

Several sources have sent BBG Watch Isaacson’s email to his senior staff:

Dear colleagues,
    Today I told the white House that I’m stepping down from the BBG.  
    As I discussed with some of you, I’m taking on another big writing project, so I won’t be able to give the BBG the time it needs and deserves.
    Our terms have all either expired or are about to, and I think the board can be proud of its work. We developed over two years a strategic plan to streamline and consolidate the agency, and we adopted unanimously at our last meeting the two resolutions that would implement it. We’ve also hired great new entity heads — David Ensor at Voice of America, Steve Korn at Radio Free Europe, and Carlos Garcia-Perez at Radio and TV Marti — to join the strong leaders at the other entities.
    It’s been exciting to serve on the BBG. And I’m available when you need me to help or cheer from the sidelines. Thanks for all your help and friendship.
   All the best, Walter

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