Seven Senators wrote to new global media director Michael Pack threatening budget cuts if the United States-supported media are politicized. The group, in an announcement June 2, expressed “deep concern” over what they termed as a purge by the Trump administration of five senior officers of U.S. international multimedia organizations shortly after the resignation of Voice of…
The newly-installed CEO of five publicly-funded multimedia overseas networks, Michael Pack, wasted no time during his first day in office June 17 in announcing his dismissal of four civil service heads of the networks. They are: President Jamie Fly of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, a recently named specialist in Russia and Eastern Europe President Bay…
The resignation of Amanda Bennett as director of the Voice of America began a slew of developments that have captured news headlines. Bennett resigned as Michael Pack, a film-maker, was confirmed as the new Chief Executive Officer of VOA’s parent organization, the United States Agency for Global Media. Pack has since fired the directors of…
After four years and two months of innovative leadership at the Voice of America, Ms. Bennett and her deputy Sandy Sugawara issued a statement on June 15 saying: “It’s time for us to leave. This morning, we sent our resignations to Michael Pack, the newly-arrived CEO of the U.S. Agency for Global Media (USAGM). In…
1. George Floyd and America’s Image The tragic, painful, and unprecedented events surrounding the murder of a black man, George Floyd, at the hands of a white policeman in Minneapolis continue to deeply affect the country and damage America’s image around the world. Our ambassadors and PD officers are surely being challenged to explain how…
Mohammed Ghuneim, former director of the VOA Arabic Service and frontline Middle East correspondent during the last half of the 20th century, died May 16 in West Palm Beach, Florida. He had just celebrated his 90th birthday last December. A funeral service and burial were held on May 18 in West Palm Beach. Born in…
My esteemed colleague and friend Gene Pell was well known in his primary profession, international broadcasting, to a world often denied high quality, objective news and information. Gene died on April 7 after a three-year battle with cancer at his home near Syria, Virginia. He was 83. Gene is the only leader to have occupied…
The Voice of America is the nation’s largest publicly-funded international broadcaster, reaching 280,000,000 multimedia users in 47 languages each week, many of whom access it daily for honest, balanced and accurate world news. To most senior VOA officials, past and present, including this writer, an unsigned White House blog on April 9, 1600 Daily, omitted…
“CRACKS APPEARING IN THE GLOBAL ECONOMY…AS CORONAVIRUS TERRORIZES THE WORLD” That grim headline is the opening of a program March 25 moderated by the Voice of America’s Greta van Susteren. That half hour weekly Wednesday panel is entitled Plugged In. Ms. van Susteren samples experts’ up-to-the minute assessments of global health crisis endangering millions of…
As a 36-year VOA professional who retired at the end of last century, I recall vividly a day when VOA’s then record weekly global audience reached around a hundred million followers. A Voice technician, in a conversation in a Voice corridor, noted an irony in this good news. Referring to the scarce coverage in the U.S.…