Wes Vernon, NewsMax.com
Thursday, Sept. 26, 2002

WASHINGTON – Perhaps resentful of being on the taxpayers' dole, Voice of America goes out of its way to bite the hand that feeds it.

VOA after 9/11 has continued a policy of granting interviews to terrorists, all in the name of "balance.” Yet, in the past, VOA has been reluctant to address questions about its stewardship on behalf of American taxpayers.

NewsMax.com has asked VOA why broadcasts to Brazil in its dominant language, Portuguese, were canceled, just when a Castroite is leading in the polls in that country’s presidential race.

Another question NewsMax submitted to VOA, and which VOA did not answer at first, was as follows:

"I have been told that VOA is putting a greater emphasis on entertainment, possibly at the expense of news and information. Though in the broadcast industry, that path can be ‘good for ratings,’ does it also risk compromising the U.S. message?”

Free Congress Foundation President Paul M. Weyrich says that policy can be partly attributed to Norman Pattiz, "a powerful member of BBG," Board of Broadcasting Governors, VOA’s governing board.

According to Weyrich, Pattiz, the founder and chairman of Westwood One, "views pop entertainers [recording ‘artists’ is simply not an appropriate term] such as Britney Spears and Eminem as potential cultural warriors who can convert Arab youth to the post-modern American Way, providing that they perform well in focus group tests.”

Pattiz met with some resistance within the organization. Not that all experimentation with rock music is necessarily bad. But should VOA become the MTV of the United States government?

At least one source has indicated to NewsMax.com that it isn’t just rock music that Pattiz’s Radio Sawa (as he calls it) is beaming to Arab nations, but rap music as well. Other sources familiar with VOA operations deny this. Rap music has come under fire in this country for its hateful, violent and vulgar lyrics.

MTV Brought Down the Berlin Wall?

Apparently, Pattiz sees nothing wrong with beaming some pop culture to Arabs. New Yorker magazine has quoted him as saying that MTV brought down the Berlin Wall.

"Outrageous!” said one source who defends VOA. This person went on to assure NewsMax.com that this view, as expressed by the Westwood One broadcaster, will not prevail at VOA under the Bush administration.

Prior to beginning this series of reports, VOA did not respond to our inquiries.

However, as word of the reports has spread, sources close to those in authority at VOA have contacted NewsMax through back channels. We intend to address their views in future reports.

All of this music on Radio Sawa, for better or worse, means less time for news and information. And even the small amount of news that is left can cause some problems for the United States.

Bob Schadler, a leader of the Victims of Communism Memorial Foundation, has a background with VOA and other U.S. overseas broadcast efforts. He says there is a long-standing culture clash in overseas broadcast operations. That sensitivity over news judgment is exacerbated by the fact that VOA is a government operation.

"Journalists like to be independent. They like to call it the way they want to, that’s part of a journalistic ethic,” Schadler told NewsMax.

Funded by Taxpayers ... but 'Independent'

"The fact that it’s government-funded [bothers them], and in my view they overcompensate by needing to prove to their journalistic peers that they’re independent of the government. They tend to tilt against the government to prove their independence.”

"Tilt against the government?” That raises the question: If an entity whose name is the "Voice of America” will "tilt against the government,” who will tilt for the U.S.?

As Schadler notes, this culture clash has been around for a long time. It goes to the issue of whether VOA news broadcasts handled by journalists who are indistinguishable from those in the mainstream media necessarily serve the interest of Americans, whose tax dollars foot the bill.

No Diversity of Thought

Back in 1969, Frank Shakespeare, then a communications chief in the Nixon administration, told reporters at a meeting in Detroit of the Radio-TV News Directors Association that "you do try to be fair.” The problem, he said, is the herd mentality amongst Washington journalists, where nearly everyone acts alike, does alike and thinks alike.

He argued this often causes even the most honest and conscientious newspeople to overlook the conservative side of the story. "Liberalism” is more or less normalized, he pointed out.

Shakespeare made his comments in the era when then-Vice President Spiro Agnew was referring to many establishment journalists as "nattering nabobs of negativism.”

Much later, just last year, that theme was further explored in former CBS correspondent Bernard Goldberg’s best-seller, "Bias.”

For present purposes, the end result of what Schadler is referring to is that if you like the "tilt” of the New York Times or the Washington Post, you will love the "tilt” of the news broadcasts of VOA. It is indeed "a long-standing culture clash,” and one that some are convinced defies an easy solution.

Read more on this subject in related Hot Topics:

Bush Administration

Clinton Scandals

Media Bias

Editor's note:
Tammy Bruce’s "The New Thought Police: Inside the Left’s Assault on Free Speech and Free Minds"