There is a presumption that the Broadcasting Board of Governors (BBG), which directs U.S. international broadcasting, is working in the National and Public Interest. However, the actions of the Board seem to indicate otherwise.
The Board has been responsible for one blunder after another -- to the point that its actions have compromised US strategic interests as far as US international broadcasting is concerned. For ten long years, time and again, the Board has proposed cutting Voice of America (VOA) language services and broadcasts that are either necessary or heavy with symbolic value. Some of this is being done, apparently, to prop up its very visible broadcasting flops to the Middle East, the Alhurra television project and Radio Sawa. The shortcomings of these operations have been well documented. But still, the Board blunders on -- Republicans and Democrats alike.
As bad as the Alhurra and Radio Sawa miscues have been, and they have been plenty bad, it pales in comparison to more recent Board decisions.
The Board, unilaterally and in contravention of the express language of the Congress, closed the Voice of America Russian Radio Service. In effect, we are deaf, dumb and blind in Russia. The Board would counter that we have a website in Russian. It has absolutely no meaningful impact.
In July, the Board has also proposed closing the entire VOA Georgian Service. It is only an accident of timing that current events have intervened before the Board could compound its errors further. Ironically, the VOA Georgian Service is now positioned to chronicle the pulverization of the Georgian homeland while US officials flail away with empty and hollow words as the casualties mount.
Some weeks ago, around the time that the Board unilaterally closed the VOA Russian Radio Service, an article appeared in the Outlook section of the Washington Post. The op-ed piece was accompanied by a picture of Vladimir Putin, shirtless, carrying a rifle with a scope, out on the Russian steppes, “hunting.” Anyone who knows Russian history most likely felt the hairs on the back of their neck stand up. This calculated image represents the new Russia, revitalized, nationalistic, prepared to regain a place of reckoning on the world stage -- by whatever means necessary.
The Board's recent decision to end the VOA Russian radio broadcasts and close the VOA Georgian Service shows once again that their supposed complicated "strategic matrix", on which they base their decisions to close certain VOA language services, is seriously flawed. In the past, their "complicated strategic matrix", indicated that they should eliminate VOA Portuguese to Brazil, Turkish, Tibetan, Cantonese, and incredibly enough the VOA global English radio broadcasts, among others. The elimination of Russian and Georgian radio broadcasts should be the last straw. The people who developed this "matrix" should be fired. Congress should reverse the current proposed cuts and should prevent any further cuts in the future. Most importantly, Congress should act immediately to dissolve the Broadcasting Board of Governors.
The Voice of America is an asset of the American public and has an important role in the public diplomacy of our country. The Board should have served as a caretaker of this most valuable asset, improving it as necessary. Instead, the Board has been actively destroying the Voice of America.
