Voice-Over America [1]
Submitted by Laura Miller [2] on
"The story of Kenneth Tomlinson [3]'s efforts to impose his right-tilting version of 'balance' on the Corporation for Public Broadcasting [4] (CPB) has incited national controversy. But while that tale is well-known, Tomlinson's malign influence on another respected media institution, the Voice of America [5] (VOA), has received far less attention," Art Levine writes for The American Prospect. "What's happened at the VOA -- which the longtime Karl Rove [6] ally Tomlinson oversees as chairman of the Broadcasting Board of Governors [7] (BBG) -- has done considerable damage to the value and credibility of international broadcasting. According to interviews with current and former VOA staffers and e-mails obtained by The American Prospect, under Tomlinson's watch, VOA administrators have pressed the agency's journalists to report pro-White House spin and too often directed them to downplay hard-hitting news in favor of puffery."