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 […]

read more from this topic.....

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 […]

read more from this topic.....

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 […]

read more from this topic.....

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 […]

read more from this topic.....

BBG Watch has learned that a top Broadcasting Board of Governors (BBG) executive has racked up $108,000 in travel expenses so far this year. Sources tell us that the official has no real responsibilities but likes to show up to take credit for the work already done by other BBG employees. According to one source, […]

read more from this topic.....

The NYTimes has an article about problems with the Global fund to fight AIDS.
It seems that they checked the books and found some of the money was stolen or diverted, and as a result, a lot of European donors are not giving any more money until the problem is cleared up.
You want honesty at […]

read more from this topic.....

I do not usually republish articles, but this one really disturbed me - Simon
10,000 Tibetans converge in Tawu for funeral, Chinese Forces Seen Entering Monastery
 
Footage can be viewed here: http://dl.dropbox.com/u/6955112/Tawu%20Footage.mp4

High resolution footage can be downloaded here:
http://dl.dropbox.com/u/6955112/Tawu%20Footage.dv
Dharamsala/New York - The most comprehensive footage of protests in Tibet this year, including shocking images of Palden Choetso, a […]

read more from this topic.....

The media freedom website BBG Watch reported that the Senate Committee on Appropriations has rejected the Broadcasting Board of Governors’ (BBG) proposal to end Voice of America (VOA) radio and TV broadcasts to China and criticized the BBG for the lack of transparency. The committee recommended $740,039,000 for U.S. international broadcasting operations, for the operating […]

read more from this topic.....

Joe Biden’s visit to China has gotten little respect in the US press, who seem to despise his “everyday man” approach to things and who trumpet his verbal gaffes without noticing his common touch is something desperately needed by the elitist Obama administration.
During his trip to China, he visited an ordinary Chinese restaurant and ate […]

read more from this topic.....

FreeMediaOnline.org Truckee, CA, USA, July 28, 2011 –Press freedom advocates and Ethiopian Americans are declaring a partial victory in their fight with the Broadcasting Board of Governors (BBG), a U.S. government agency, over the censorship of the Voice of America radio programs to Ethiopia. They credit massive protests and a demonstration held Monday in […]

read more from this topic.....

FreeMediaOnline.org San Francisco, CA, USA, July 24, 2011 — Leaders of the Ethiopian American community joined by free media advocates are planning a protest rally on Monday, July 25, in front of the Voice of America (VOA) building in Washington, DC amid charges of censorship of VOA news programs to Ethiopia by the Broadcasting […]

read more from this topic.....

I am bemused when the sins that we recognized in the past are now being redefined by the modern world.
Greed, of course, is behind our “addiction” to oil, the war in the Middle East (no blood for oil”)  and the manipulation  of the stock market.
Lust however is still being touted by the NYTimes as good […]

read more from this topic.....

Many years ago, conspiracy theorists claimed the US was fighting in Viet Nam in order to exploit the oil fields in the Spratlys islands.
This fact allowed the anti war humanitarians to dismiss the story that the US was there because a communist takeover of the region that would result in hundreds of thousand sent to […]

read more from this topic.....

Last week, my son in law went for the fifth time to Manila to try to collect rent owed and damages for a house we rented out. (We bought it when he was attending university there, and now rent it out).
In the USA, usually after a few months of non payment, you can get them […]

read more from this topic.....

I am aghast when I read at MSNBC Money the “good” side of higher oil prices.
Summary: it will make you buy a smaller car, not travel as much, and so you will be healthier from walking and Mother Gaia will be  less polluted.
Yet the real cluelessness is that the writer sees high oil prices as […]

read more from this topic.....

FreeMediaOnline.org Truckee, CA, USA, April 1, 2011– The Washington Times has published an op-ed by Free Media Online president Ted Lipien urging Congress to stop the Broadcasting Board of Governors from silencing the Voice of America radio to China.
A Chinese free labor union leader like Poland’s Lech Walesa could be declared expendable by the […]

read more from this topic.....

If you live in the Philippines, the big news of the day is sorrow and anger that China has executed three of our OFW (overseas foreign workers) for carrying drugs into China.
The anger is partly because two of the “drug mules” were women with families, and many Filipinos who have family members overseas shudder at […]

read more from this topic.....

I am aghast at a lot of the news coming out of US sites about what is going on in Libya.
First, there are the “ain’t it awful” posts, lamenting that the side backed by the West hasn’t won yet, (in 7 whole days).
Second, they find out that some of those revolting are Islamicists. Well, duh. […]

read more from this topic.....

I’ve been too busy to watch the US news on our cable network, but the BBC reports are mainly about the fighting in Libya.
But here in the Philippines, the headlines are about our workers. You see, there are at least 25,000 Filipino OFW’s (”overseas foreign workers”) in Libya, and although the government has arranged a […]

read more from this topic.....

The ecosystem in the Philippine island of Palawan is unique, and to make it worse, the island has only recently been cleared of terrorists and reopened for tourism, so there is worry that the terrible scars from mining will destroy tourism too.
A couple months back, a reporter and civic leader was assassinated because he had […]

read more from this topic.....

While the US headlines were full of Charlie Sheen’s rants and news of labor union protests in Wisconsin,  here in the Philippines, the headlines are about our stranded OFW (overseas foreign workers) in Libya.
Every paper has photos of those who escaped arriving at the Manila airport, and the Philippine Inquirer notes that the government arranged […]

read more from this topic.....

TedLipien.com, Truckee, CA, March 1, 2011 — In this series of analyses for Free Media Online (FreeMediaOnline.org) — U.S. International Broadcasting in Crisis– Ted Lipien, former Voice of America acting associate director, examines recent Broadcasting Board of Governors’ decisions, with a focus on the latest controversial plan to completely eliminate Voice of America on-the-air […]

read more from this topic.....

FreeMediaOnline.orgTruckee, CA, USA, February 21, 2011 — As reported by PiratesWeek and Kim Andrew Elliott, a Broadcasting Board of Governors (BBG) employee who publishes his own private international broadcasting website, the BBG-managed Voice of America (VOA) websites were hacked on February 21, 2011, apparently by the “Iranian Cyber Army.” In 2009, VOA websites were […]

read more from this topic.....

Peace on Earth, Goodwill to men…except in the headlines.
You see headlines about NATO troops killed in Afghanistan. Yes, that nasty war is still going on. But the headlines don’t put it into perspective: the Taliban wants to stop education of girls, and any western type education for anyone. But the headlines don’t talk about positive […]

read more from this topic.....

China has already used it’s economic clout to intimidate many countries to boycott the Nobel Prize cermony that honors their poet Liu Xiaobo.
This boycott has gotten them criticism from some human rights groups, including those in our Philippines.
The ability and willingness of China to use it’s economic clout for political purposes is a very important […]

read more from this topic.....

As an Asian, I am aghast that Thomas Friedman is picking up the propaganda line coming out of China and disseminating it on the New York Times editorial page.
From today’s editorial:
What if China had a WikiLeaker and we could see what its embassy in Washington was reporting about America?
Reality check:
China would jail anyone who even […]

read more from this topic.....

A lot of nonsense being written about Afghanistan: Some see it as a hopeless war, but the dirty little secret is that Afghanistan is about protecting India and the Silk Road (the central Asian countries with their oil and gas resources) for India and China.
But what to do about Afghanistan? It’s not true that it […]

read more from this topic.....

I love how Tom Friedman in the NYTimes lectures his US readers on “how the Chinese see us” by relating a skit on China’s government owned TV station where children were taught to ridicule the US:
China’s CCTV aired a skit showing four children… getting ready to run a race. Before they take off, the […]

read more from this topic.....

The naive guys at the NYTimes Freakonomics blog have a short article on the cost of health care, especially medicines, in third world countries:
A new study analyzed the effects of buying four basic prescription drugs in “low- and middle-income countries,” and the results aren’t pretty. “Buying brand name amoxicillin, for example, […]

read more from this topic.....

What would be the worst possible time to go to China to ink business contracts? When you’re facing criminal investigation for fraud.
Vancouver Mayor Gregor Robertson is spending this week in China, visiting the Shanghai World Fair — Sept. 10th is Vancouver Day at the fair — and four other cities, talking to business people about the […]

read more from this topic.....