In a Washington Times Op-Ed, a Committee for U.S. International Broadcasting member Ted Lipien warned about a pro-Putin bias in the Voice of America Russian programs. Lipien reported that a highly respected independent journalist in Russia hired by the Broadcasting Board of Governors to evaluate the VOA Russian website concluded last year that it has […]

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In yet another disturbing news, MidDay reported that three more phishing complaints have been registered yesterday in  Pune in which a total of Rs 17.50 lakhs have been lost by three customers of the banks.
Irrespective of the cause, it is to be recognized that this news reflects yet another nail being driven down  the coffin signifying […]

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It’s hard to follow American politics from ten thousand miles away (I live in the rural Philippines, and we get the news a day late), but as a Democrat, I was bemused to read in today’s papers that Rick Santorum just won in the Republican primaries of Minnesota and Missouri.
Santorum? I wasn’t aware he […]

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I was not surprised yesterday when I received information that one customer of Punjab National Bank had lost Rs 80 lakhs in a Phishing fraud. I was not also surprised that part of the proceeds were transferred to the account of some customer of PNB in Kashmir indicating a straight link to […]

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To watch the film “The Iron Lady” is like trying to learn about a person from a list.
Grocer’s daughter, check. Politician, check. Anti Thatcher demonstrations, check. Falklands war, check. Going to celebrate the fall of the Iron curtain, check.
For anyone not aware of the history of the 1970’s and 1980’s, the quick scenes depicting some […]

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BBG Watch News Commentary

According to BBG Watch sources, executives in charge of U.S. international broadcasting have been trying to keep secret the fake Voice of America (VOA) interview with a Russian opposition leader from members of the Broadcasting Board of Governors (BBG) who have the ultimate responsibility over VOA and other U.S. government-funded news operations.
Sources […]

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All is fair in love and war and, I suppose we have to accept, politics as well. ‘Twas ever thus perhaps – only someone seriously ignorant of history would say that politics has ever been free of cant and cover up and of posturing and play-acting.  As Harry Truman said “If you don’t like the […]

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World War I is getting some attention in the entertainment industry lately, with the high class hit “Downton Abbey” and now the Stephen Spielburg film “War Horse”.
The plot is simple: think of Lassie comes home (the 1943 version) of a beloved animal separated from his master and trying to survive. Except in this one it […]

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On New Year’s Eve, Jessica Munday watched helplessly as her close friends, Matt and Melanie Capobianco were forced to hand over their adopted little girl, Veronica, to her birth father. Now Munday and Stephanie Brinkley (a Charleston adoption attorney) are on a mission to “save Veronica.”

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In a significant development in Bangalore, a quasi judicial authority has issued an order that has legal sanctity in which he has interpreted that under one important section of the Information Technology Act the term “Person” used in the Act applies only to a “natural person” and not a “body corporate”.
This decision has created a […]

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Here in the Philippines, thanks to Wikileaks, we know that not only American money is behind our “Reproductive Health Bill”, but that the American State Department is pressuring our president to pass the bill.
Heaven knows that the Philippines does need access to cheaper Birth control, but it’s not as if it’s not available: they sell […]

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Well actually quite a lot. One is old and reasonably rich, the other is young, brainless, and likely penniless.
But who paid the bigger price for being found guilty? Newt fessed up $300,000 yet Casey has managed to even avoid the $25 a month for probation. So who is the smarter one?
Casey was accused of murder; […]

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(London, UK) Autism Sunday celebrates 10 Years (2002 - 2012) on Sunday the 12th of February this year. Autism Sunday is the brainchild of British autism campaigners Ivan and Charika Corea - what started as a small acorn of an idea in their front room has turned into a massive global event, celebrated in many […]

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A commentary by BBG Watch
Cute High School Intern
Broadcasting Board of Governors (BBG) officials have gotten so used to running their small federal agency like their own private country club that they still frequently forget that at least some of their meetings can now be viewed online.
While the video from the last BBG meeting was streamed […]

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Ever since the Government of India summoned the major social networking companies namely Google, Face Book and Yahoo and demanded that they install a pre-publication manual monitoring system for content filtering, there has been considerable discussions about what is right, what is feasible, what is legal etc about the “Due Diligence” required to be exercised […]

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Though supporters of the Indian Child Welfare Act say it has safeguards to prevent misuse, Veronica and numerous other multi-racial children across the U.S have been hurt by it. Children who have never been near a reservation nor involved in tribal customs are affected. The Cherokee Nation alone is currently tied up in about 1,100 active Indian Child Welfare cases involving some 1,500 children.

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In the last two days DNA, Mumbai has published two articles highlighting the current state of affairs in Banking Frauds in India. The reports are based on an RTI application and reveal the alarming state of affairs.
The first report from DNA which appeared yesterday (8th January) revealed that Mumbai was the leading city in […]

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 Most restaurants can get at least one thing right - that signature dish, five dollar happy hour drinks, or even a special molten chocolate dessert. Unfortunately, not too many get it all right. I have found an exception straddling the border between midtown and Hells Kitchen (350 W. 50th Street) in New York City. Enter […]

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Blocking of websites in India for political considerations has been in news for some time.
The fact that this power is being politically misused is confirmed by the incident where the website of a political cartoonist, Mr Aseem Trivedi participating in the Anna Hazare protest in MMRDA grounds has been blocked. Times of India has […]

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The Broadcasting Board of Governors (BBG) employees are both annoyed and amused by the International Broadcasting Bureau (IBB) Director Richard Lobo’s memo in which he justifies bonuses paid to BBG executives as being in line with awards received by executives employed by other federal agencies. As some employees point out, there is a problem with […]

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I hate air pollution.
When I travel in Manila, I have to use an asthma inhaler to stop an attack. Here in the provinces, I only have to use an inhaler in spring, when they burn off the weeds in the fields.
However, science reporting on “green” issues often is so inaccurate that a lot of […]

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It rained last night, and more coming. In some ways, this is good news, because it means we don’t have to pay so much to irrigate our “dry season” crop. But it is bad news for the south, which is still recovering from the devestating storm that killed over a thousand people..
Superficially, the storm makes […]

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While they were there, the time came for the baby to be born, and she gave birth to her firstborn, a son. She wrapped him in cloths and placed him in a manger, because there was no room for them in the inn. And there were shepherds living out in the fields nearby, keeping watch over their flocks at night. An angel of the Lord appeared to them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were terrified. But the angel said to them, “Do not be afraid. I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people…

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Recently, a security specialist in Bangalore released a video in which he demonstrated how the Internet Banking System of ICICI Bank was vulnerable to a virus attack.
The Bank immediately moved to send an email notice to the security consultant requesting removal of the content failing which a legal action was threatened.
The action of the Bank […]

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BBGWatch.com - December 20, 2011 - Victor Ashe, a member of the Broadcasting Board of Governors (BBG), has called for keeping open the radio broadcasting facility on U.S. territory that is capable of transmitting shortwave radio programs to China. Some Obama Administration officials want to shut down the last remaining U.S.–based international broadcast station located […]

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Ho ho ho! On December 21st, the National Association of Realtors (NAR) will gift the nation with the true number of existing home sales between 2007 and 2010. The NAR’s inflated numbers were flagged earlier this year by CoreLogic, a California based data firm. When confronted, the NAR grumped they’d look into it. Sounding more […]

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The president of Women’s Rights Without Frontiers Reggie Littlejohn, who is also a member of the Advisory Board for the Committee for U.S. International Broadcasting (CUSIB), said that Christian Bale is a hero for trying to visit Chinese human rights advocate Chen Guangcheng who is kept under house arrest in China.
Women’s Rights Without Frontiers is […]

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This story gets stranger and stranger. The facts are few and far between. The US maintains that they did indeed lose control of a drone aircraft on surveillance mission over Afghanistan. In Pentagon speak, it was unfortunate, but really no big deal. No lives were lost, it was akin to a radio control plane enthusiast […]

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Canadian folk artist John Swinton’s original paintings predicted to be a solid investment according to award-winning educator and writer Michael Ernest Sweet.

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Public Service workers balked at the idea that government pensions might be cut. The answer, so the unions claimed, was to stage a major walk out. The numbers are still being tallied, but it appears that more than a million public service workers took Wednesday off.
Was it successful? Well it depends on your point of […]

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