Natural Citizen
03-25-2015, 10:16 PM
Former US broadcasting officials, diplomats and politicians are calling for a complete overhaul of government-funded news operations, arguing that Washington’s rivals are winning the information war.
BBG’s 2016 budget proposal (http://www.bbg.gov/wp-content/media/2015/03/FY2016Budget_CBJ_Final_WebVersion.pdf) is asking for $751.1 million to “increase global engagement, move more aggressively into television and digital media, and support high priority audiences.” The agency is asking for $15.4 million to create and expand Russian-language programing and social media content. By comparison, its combined efforts against the Islamic State would amount to $6.1 million.
Facing what it says is “Russian aggression and Russian-language propaganda,” the BBG is asking for money to “provide credible journalism and information at scale in order to provide Russian language speakers with a fair and balanced picture of the world.”
Speaking with RT, William Jones of the weekly news magazine Executive Intelligence Review said there are other intentions behind the proposal.
“They are very frightened about the fact that their big lie about what is going on in Ukraine and elsewhere, and the situation in Russia generally, people just aren’t swallowing it. So they have to spend a lot of funds in order to try and get the message out,” Jones said.
“They are not interested in truth. If they were interested in the truth, they wouldn’t be doing the things they are doing.”
Earlier this month, new BBG CEO Andrew Lack resigned (http://rt.com/usa/237865-ceo-bbg-leaves-nbc/) after just six weeks on the job. Shortly after his appointment in January, he equated RT with terrorists when referring to challenges to US media.
“We are facing a number of challenges from entities like Russia Today which is out there pushing a point of view, the Islamic State in the Middle East and groups like Boko Haram,” Lack told The New York Times.
Last year, Royce proposed a bill that would unify all US government broadcasters into the US International Communications Agency, while regional grant recipients such as RFE/RL would be consolidated into a 'Freedom News Network.' Passed by the House, the bill has yet to appear before the Senate.
Continued - Report calls for overhaul of US govt media to fight ‘info war’ with Russia, ISIS (http://rt.com/usa/244085-us-info-war-russia-isis/)
Aside...
RT’s Ben Swann speaks to Anissa Naouai herself for a reaction to a discussion between CNN’s Christiane Amanpour and RT’s Anissa Naouai which degraded into a tense back and forth, resulting in Naouai’s criticisms of CNN and its coverage of international affairs being cut from the finalized interview that was broadcast. After repeated questions which, according to Naouai, implied her impartiality was lacking, the RT host responded by questioning Amanpour’s own impartiality and potential conflicts of interest when it comes to US military interventions. These comments never made it on air.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PhOfwGN11oY
BBG’s 2016 budget proposal (http://www.bbg.gov/wp-content/media/2015/03/FY2016Budget_CBJ_Final_WebVersion.pdf) is asking for $751.1 million to “increase global engagement, move more aggressively into television and digital media, and support high priority audiences.” The agency is asking for $15.4 million to create and expand Russian-language programing and social media content. By comparison, its combined efforts against the Islamic State would amount to $6.1 million.
Facing what it says is “Russian aggression and Russian-language propaganda,” the BBG is asking for money to “provide credible journalism and information at scale in order to provide Russian language speakers with a fair and balanced picture of the world.”
Speaking with RT, William Jones of the weekly news magazine Executive Intelligence Review said there are other intentions behind the proposal.
“They are very frightened about the fact that their big lie about what is going on in Ukraine and elsewhere, and the situation in Russia generally, people just aren’t swallowing it. So they have to spend a lot of funds in order to try and get the message out,” Jones said.
“They are not interested in truth. If they were interested in the truth, they wouldn’t be doing the things they are doing.”
Earlier this month, new BBG CEO Andrew Lack resigned (http://rt.com/usa/237865-ceo-bbg-leaves-nbc/) after just six weeks on the job. Shortly after his appointment in January, he equated RT with terrorists when referring to challenges to US media.
“We are facing a number of challenges from entities like Russia Today which is out there pushing a point of view, the Islamic State in the Middle East and groups like Boko Haram,” Lack told The New York Times.
Last year, Royce proposed a bill that would unify all US government broadcasters into the US International Communications Agency, while regional grant recipients such as RFE/RL would be consolidated into a 'Freedom News Network.' Passed by the House, the bill has yet to appear before the Senate.
Continued - Report calls for overhaul of US govt media to fight ‘info war’ with Russia, ISIS (http://rt.com/usa/244085-us-info-war-russia-isis/)
Aside...
RT’s Ben Swann speaks to Anissa Naouai herself for a reaction to a discussion between CNN’s Christiane Amanpour and RT’s Anissa Naouai which degraded into a tense back and forth, resulting in Naouai’s criticisms of CNN and its coverage of international affairs being cut from the finalized interview that was broadcast. After repeated questions which, according to Naouai, implied her impartiality was lacking, the RT host responded by questioning Amanpour’s own impartiality and potential conflicts of interest when it comes to US military interventions. These comments never made it on air.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PhOfwGN11oY