Good food for thought below.
Richard Cuff / Allentown, PA USA
---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Roger Chambers <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Date: Jan 25, 2008 7:40 AM
Subject: [ODXA] VOA
To: ODXA <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Listening to what I found to be quite interesting and
credible news reporting on VOA "World News Now" (0110
on January 25th) I was reminded on how much missed is
the VOA in English. Almost (but not quite) as much as
the BBC and DW.
Very good news reporting on the Gaza - Egyptian
border, and then a very good feature on views of the
mentality of suicide bombers. As part of the Davos
Conference in Switzerland (though it was unclear if
all of these people were actually there or making
statements from elsewhere that were publicized at
Davos) was a remarkable diversity of views on the
social causes and mentality of the suicide bomber.
This included comments of President Musharif of
Pakistan and President Karzai of Afghanistan. The
debate centers of the role of militant religious
fanatics vs. poverty being a major influence on the
bombers. In some cases, terminally ill "volunteers"
are used, with payment to the families made.
The point is: This factual, impartial (by presenting
divergent views) coverage is exactly the sort of
diverse views, discussion, and information one would
expect from a good (governmental or semiautonomous)
public broadcaster. This is true whether it is
domestic (such as NPR, CBC, PRI, BBC, Australian ABC,
etc.) or international in scope (Radio Netherlands,
Radio Australia, Deutsche Welle, etc).
The BBC and the VOA are both sorely missed in this
market place of ideas and information on the short
wave bands. Centralizing every facet into satellite
and internet and what seems to be imminent abandonment
of short wave bands is a big mistake in the long run.
As for the VOA in particular and America's voice in
international radio in general, the situation for
virtually all concerned (US State Department, the
American Taxpayer, and the radio listener) would all
be better served by a reinvigorated VOA world service
in English heard virtually any where for at least a
few hours a day. There should also be external
services in languages deemed appropriate. However,
let's scrap the largely blatantly propaganda oriented
Radio Marti, Radio Free Asia, Radio Farda, and Radio
Sawa. A reinvigorated, well funded, well thought out
programming, including clearly announced "official
comment" would be far more effective and beneficial
for all concerned than what we have now.
Roger Chambers
Utica, New York
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Richard Cuff / Allentown, PA USA
International broadcasting / shortwave blog:
http://www.intlradio.blogspot.com
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