An Obama-Backed Change At Voice Of America Has Trump Critics Worried

One of the key failures in out Pivot to the Pacific was that we decrease the VOA staff in SEA and Asia - instead of placing a more robust staff that allowed VOA to be even more competitive and providing the spotlight on many different items with getting the story out. If no one knows what your doing - does not exactly matter that you are doing it if it is someone elses spin on the activity.

I read it with great interest and yet it did not actually go into the issue at hand with the Board of Broadcasting Governors and why a change was needed. I thought the article itself was another example of disinformation and fear mongering that pits assumptions and opinions and crafts a storyline and tries to pass it self off as news. Example - where is the sources talked to in VOA or related to - why use cranks or wonks that have an agenda as sources to provide fear and state their opinions? This should have been up near top and yet is hidden in article towards bottom because if up top would not have fear mongering. "A spokeswoman for the board said in a statement to NPR that the legislation makes no change to the statutory protections afforded the federal broadcasters."

Would like to see more on the actual story of how some in VOA family are seeing this and how they see it as being a step towards what is needed or not. Would like to see what Lansing has to say on it If a reporter did not reach out to his office - not really doing much of a story. The real story is how much VOA has been cut during the past 8 years and how we FAILED in that area to boost it as we really need it. VOA today is not the VOA of yesterday - and is usually a better source than many places - and some of the truly great journalists who go and actually cover a story without the political or national angle others have.