Zachary Christie, A six y/o “A” student at John R. Downes Elementary School in Delaware, brought his favorite Cub Scout camping utensil (a combination knife, fork and spoon) to school to eat lunch with it — he eats all his meals at home with it and saw no problem with taking it to school.That […]

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FreeMediaOnline.org, Free Media Online Blog, GovoritAmerika.us, July 09, 2009, San Francisco — While other U.S. government computer networks have long been back in operation after the cyber attack launched last weekend, the lead Federal agency in charge of communicating with the world on behalf of the United States suffered a catastrophic failure, […]

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FreeMediaOnline.org, Free Media Online Blog, GovoritAmerika.us, July 08, 2009, San Francisco –The Voice of America (VOA) multi-language international news website has been down most of the time during the final day of Barack Obama’s first presidential visit to Moscow as a result of a suspected North Korean cyber attack. Other U.S. government […]

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White House Photos, Lawrence Jackson. The President discusses Iran during his opening remarks at the Press Conference at the White House, June 23, 2009.

FreeMediaOnline.org,  Free Media Online Blog,  GovoritAmerika.us, Commentary by Ted Lipien, June 26, 2009, San Francisco – Ronald Reagan’s strong response to the imposition of martial law  against the independent Solidarity trade union in Poland in 1981 was distinctly different […]

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 FreeMediaOnline.org & Free Media Online Blog Commentary by Ted Lipien, June 04, 2009, San Francisco – President Obama’s recent announcement of a new Global Engagement Directorate that will combine ”diplomacy, communications, international development and assistance” was short on specifics how this new structure might change the focus of U.S. public diplomacy and broadcasting initiatives. That’s hardly surprising, considering that the White House has to deal with […]

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Voice of America Russian Service Journalists Blamed for Management’s Failures
FreeMediaOnline.org & Free Media Online Blog, March 18, 2009, San Francisco — My commentary on the poor state of U.S. public diplomacy and international broadcasting, Sexy Images from the Voice of America, has produced  management backlash against the Voice of America Russian Service journalists. It […]

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 FreeMediaOnline.org & Free Media Online Blog, March 10, 2009, San Francisco –  According to an independent study commissioned by a government agency in charge of  U.S. international broadcasts, the total annual audience reach in Russia for the Voice of America (VOA) Russian-language radio, TV, and Internet dropped from 10.3 percent in 2007 to 2.5% in 2008. It is believed to […]

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FreeMediaOnline.org & Free Media Online Blog Commentary by Ted Lipien, March 4, 2009, San Francisco
Senator Richard Lugar is right about past mistakes that had crippled U.S. public diplomacy, but new actions by the U.S. Broadcasting Board of Governors also continue to silence America’s voice abroad

Closed Down American Centers and Crippled Voice of America
In an […]

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 FreeMediaOnline.org & Free Media Online Blog, January 22, 2009, San Francisco — Anna Karapetian, a journalist from Armenia who in radio broadcasts funded by the U.S. government reported on human rights abuses in her country, is one of many people around the world who see Barack Obama’s inauguration as a hopeful beginning of a new era […]

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 FreeMediaOnline.org & Free Media Online Blog, January 15, 2009, San Francisco –

FreeMediaOnline.org has been reporting recently on the actions of U.S. political appointees and senior government agency officials who had stopped Voice of America (VOA) radio broadcasts to Russia 12 days before the outbreak of the war in the Caucasus, terminated VOA Hindi radio to India shortly […]

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 FreeMediaOnline.org & Free Media Online Blog Commentary by Ted Lipien, January 13, 2009, San Francisco – 

State Department’s Democracy Video Contest

State Department videos embarrass the U.S. among audiences abroad while the Department’s top promoter of Public Diplomacy 2.0 pushes to eliminate Voice of America radio journalism in favor of TV and Internet propaganda advertising and broadcasting based on […]

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 FreeMediaOnline.org & Free Media Online Blog, January 7, 2009, San Francisco – In yet another show of incredibly poor judgement combined with bad timing and ulterior bureaucratic motives resulting in a major waste of U.S. tax dollars, the Broadcasting Board of Governors (BBG), a bipartisan body responsible for U.S. international broadcasts, had silenced Voice of America (VOA) radio […]

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Did BBG End U.S. Surrogate Broadcasting in Russia on Radio Liberty in an Attempt to Appease Mr. Putin and Pursue Its Marketing Strategy?
FreeMediaOnline.org & Free Media Online Blog, December 30, 2008, San Francisco — FreeMediaOnline.org has been reporting in recent months on the intimidation of Radio Liberty (Radio Svoboda) journalists in Russia and the […]

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 FreeMediaOnline.org & Free Media Online Blog Commentary by Ted Lipien, December 16, 2008, San Francisco – In The Huffington Post article, “Alhurra TV: Uncle Sam’s Boondoggle“ Dr.  Nancy Snow has pointed out a number of serious problems with the  U.S. government-funded Alhurra Arabic-language television program for the Middle East and the Broadcasting Board of Governors (BBG), which manages Alhurra. Dr. Snow, […]

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FreeMediaOnline.org & Free Media Online Blog Commentary by Ted Lipien, December 11, 2008, San Francisco — The Broadcasting Board of Governors (BBG), which manages U.S. government-funded broadcasts for overseas audiences, has launched a campaign to defend its strategy of privatizing and outsourcing public diplomacy efforts, which it claims is designed to improve America’s image […]

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 FreeMediaOnline.org & Free Media Online Blog, November 28, 2008, San Francisco – Voice of America, a U.S. taxpayer-funded international broadcaster, was off the air with shortwave Hindi radio broadcasts to India during the terrorist attacks in Mumbai.
The decision to silence these radio broadcasts was made earlier this year by the Broadcasting Board of Governors, a U.S. […]

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 FreeMediaOnline.org & Free Media Online Blog Commentary by Ted Lipien, November 26, 2008, San Francisco – Voice of America journalists and other employees who broadcast American news to the world are thankful for the pre-Thanksgiving Day news that Ted Kaufman (Edward E. Kaufman) was appointed to the U.S. Senate seat from Delaware vacated by his former boss, Vice President elect Joe Biden. […]

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 FreeMediaOnline.org and Free Media Online Blog  November 5, 2008, San Francisco – The worldwide press freedom organization, Reporters Without Borders, has sent a letter to President of Azerbaijan, Ilham Aliyev appealing to him to intervene after the National Broadcasting Council announced it planned to take three foreign radios stations off the FM band by 2009. They […]

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A panel of 44 men and women armed with dials numbered from 0 (most negative) to 100 (most positive) assembled by CBS to watch the veep debate at its TV City research facility in Las Vegas yielded an unexpected finding: Biden did better than Palin when he talked about the Iraq war, but the tables […]

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 FreeMediaOnline.org & Free Media Online Blog Commentary by Ted Lipien, October 4, 2008, San Francisco – James Glassman, Under Secretary of State for Public Diplomacy and Public Affairs, gave incomplete and misleading answers when asked Friday whether the elimination of vernacular broadcasts to Georgia, Russia, and India is going to hurt his “war of ideas” effort. Speaking in […]

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 FreeMediaOnline.org & Free Media Online Blog  September 24, 2008, San Francisco – A U.S. broadcaster is denied access to a radio frequency in the Russian capital. The censor in this case is not the Kremlin, as one might expect, but the U.S. government agency which manages U.S. taxpayer-funded international broadcasts. The Broadcasting Board of Governors (BBG) is preventing the […]

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 FreeMediaOnline.org & Free Media Online Blog September 16, 2006, San Francisco — In a show of bipartisanship, two powerful members of Congress sent a letter to the Broadcasting Board of Governors (BBG) demanding that the BBG reverse its decision to terminate Voice of America (VOA) radio programs in Hindi to India. The BBG is a bipartisan body which […]

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A top aide to Senator Biden has sent a message to Mr. Putin that politics can be placed ahead of human rights and media freedom if there is little risk of a public outcry.  Edward “Ted” E. Kaufman, Senator Biden’s former chief of staff who now works on his vice presidential campaign, blocked attempts last week to resume Voice of America (VOA) radio programs to Russia. […]

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A New Website Hides a Tale of Fewer Radio Programs to Tibet, China, Georgia, Russia, and Ukraine

FreeMediaOnline.org & Free Media Online Blog, September 10, 2008, San Francisco — Websites tell their tales, and the newly redesigned, flashy website of the U.S. Broadcasting Board of Governors (BBG) tells a tale of hubris, waste, and reduced access to uncensored radio news for […]

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FreeMediaOnline.org & Free Media Online Blog, September 8, 2008, San Francisco — Perhaps Paula Zahn, formerly of CNN and ABC, could have explained to the White House, the U.S. Congress and the American people why the Voice of America (VOA) Russian-language radio programs were not being heard in the war zone in Georgia, or in Russia itself, when the Russian troops […]

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FreeMediaOnline.org & Free Media Online Blog, September 5, 2008, San Francisco — Even as Vice President Cheney visits Ukraine to show U.S. support for that country in the face of pressure from Russia, the U.S. Broadcasting Board of Governors (BBG), has not given up on its plan to cut the Voice of America (VOA) Ukrainian radio […]

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FreeMediaOnline.org Commentary by Ted Lipien, September 4, 2008, San Francisco – While the White House mobilized in just a few days to put together a $1 billion aid package for Georgia, and President Bush sent Vice President Dick Cheney on a trip to the region, the Broadcasting Board of Governors (BBG), which oversees all civilian U.S. international broadcasts,  is still in the mode […]

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The Repubs were in fine fettle Wednesday night, showing off their sense of humor in back-to-back speeches packed with biting barbs, alliterative jibes and irony-laden vocal inflections by erstwhile presidential candidate and former NYC Mayor Rudy Giuliani (video) and vice presidential nominee AK Gov. Sarah Palin (video). Both speakers – especially Giuliani, who mugged his […]

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Washington Post columnist Eugene Robinson notes that Spike Lee has taken to “grandiloquently divid[ing] American history into two epochs, “B.B.” and “A.B.” - Before Barack and After Barack.” With John McCain’s selection of AK Gov. Sarah Palin as his running mate, Obama went from making history to being history in the span of 12 hours.
The […]

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On Tuesday, the 88th anniversary of women being granted the right to vote, Hillary Clinton was the living embodiment of the dream of electing a woman to the White House deferred as she pledged to support rival Barack Obama’s bid for the White House. On Thursday, the 45th anniversary of Dr. Martin Luther King’s “I […]

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