Path: utzoo!utgpu!ugw.utcs.utoronto.ca!CUVMA!SWL-L Date: Sat, 3 Feb 90 18:47:46 EST Reply-To: Eric Roskos Sender: Short Wave Listener's List Comments: Warning -- original Sender: tag was From: Eric Roskos Subject: Re: VOA Cuts Six Languages X-To: swl-l@cuvmb.cc.columbia.edu To: UofToronto LAN redistribution Message-ID: <90Feb3.224206est.57494@ugw.utcs.utoronto.ca> Newsgroups: bitnet.swl-l Distribution: ut Approved: devnull@gpu.utcs.toronto.edu aem@mthvax.cs.miami.edu (a.e.mossberg) writes: >Well, maybe I'm exagerating the impact of VOA. Maybe most people do recognize >it's high propaganda content, and take everything on it with a block or two >of salt. Spoken like someone who either (a) never listens to VOA, or (b) only listens to the editorials at the end, or (c) has an unconventional view of the US. The principal bias of the VOA is that it mostly talks about political events, and tends to focus on political events involving the US. The announcers also have a very cheerful and enthusiastic tone of voice. Other than that, it's hard to see how one would claim that it has a "high propaganda content." From listening to it periodically for a number of years, my impression is that VOA's basic approach is to try to present the news surrounding these political events in a straightforward manner, to try to inform people in other countries about how these things are perceived in the US. I haven't encountered many other countries' government-sponsored radio stations that would, for example, have a debate in which one of the two people says "I think George Bush should be impeached for invading Panama" and is given equal time (and no interpretive commentary afterwards) with the opposite viewpoint to explain and expand upon his views. >They might even stop abandoning their own countries in attempts >to reach our self-styled paradise (where they become near-slaves cleaning >houses of the rich, living on the streets, and running each day from the INS) Oh... I think I see the problem. That station on 9655 KHz that has the American-sounding announcers and sounds a lot like VOA but says things like the above, um, isn't VOA. I imagine it comes in fairly strongly down there in Miami, though. As for VOA, as I've said before... I wish their "Wireless File" was available here in the US. The closest thing to it is the GPO's "Presidential Documents" and "Major Legislation of Congress," but it lacks a lot of the detail and timeliness, and only has the text of the President's speeches, not the others carried on the Wireless File. I'd rather read that (the full text of major political speeches) than the 1 or 2 quotes and lengthy interpretation provided in most of the newspapers, at least to start out. (Then I'd read the newspaper to see what the news media's opinion was.) [The above is my personal opinion.] -- Eric Roskos (roskos@IDA.ORG or Roskos@DOCKMASTER.NCSC.MIL)