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Victor Ashe says treatment of contract employees by BBG executives amounts to abuse of the system

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Will fundraising for Obama get Dick Lobo chairmanship of Broadcasting Board of Governors?

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CUSIB Statement on the Resignation of BBG Chairman Walter Isaacson

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Voice of America hushed up mistakes by former CNN employees

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Have a backup plan: VOA Director David Ensor on satellite TV signal jamming

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Media freedom activist Ted Lipien warns against diminished public stake in U.S. international broadcasting

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VOA Reporter Killed In Pakistan, BBG Watch urges BBG to do more to take care of contract and overseas-based employees

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BBG Plans Hit Major Rocks and Realities in VOA Central News – The Federalist

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CUSIB’s open letter to BBG urges greater public scrutiny of U.S. international broadcasting

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‘Old white guys’ meet ‘cute young intern’ and First Amendment at the Broadcasting Board of Governors

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Isaacson compromises in battle over public control of U.S. international broadcasting

[Update: A comment posted by someone claiming close knowledge of the BBG staff charges that BBG Watch sources are wrong and that neither Mr. Trimble, Mr. Sherman, Mr. Lobo nor even the current members of the BBG had anything to do with the plan to end VOA broadcasts to China, which the current Board did submit to Congress and vigorously defended. (BBG Watch has received a copy of a lengthy memo sent to Congress by one of the current BBG members who strongly defends the decision to end VOA broadcasts to China and cites research and analysis from the BBG staff.) The author of the comment to this story, however, puts the entire blame on former VOA Director Dan Austin and one other VOA manager and claims that the BBG staff, presumably that includes Mr. Trimble and Mr. Sherman, had opposed this plan. BBG Watch sources tell a different story and point out that the same two individuals were also responsible for arguing in favor of ending VOA radio and TV broadcasts to Russia in 2008 and for supporting eliminations or reductions in other broadcasting services to countries without free media. BBG Watch sources do concede, however, that former VOA Director Austin did support the China plan.]

[Correction from IBB Director Lobo: BBG Watch has learned that IBB Director Richard Lobo has corrected a mistake in his memo. Paul Kollmer-Dorsey does not have the tile of General Counsel. He is Deputy General Counsel. The General Counsel position has been vacant for some time.]

Jeff Trimble

Sources describe Sherman and Trimble as being primarily responsible for formulating the plan to end VOA broadcasts to China. The plan had generated strong bipartisan opposition in Congress, which forced the BBG to give up its intention to end VOA radio and TV broadcasts in Mandarin and Cantonese and to fire 45 VOA Chinese Branch journalists, most of whom specialize in human rights reporting.

According to BBG Watch sources, Trimble and Sherman are protected by the BBG Chairman Walter Isaacson who wants to de-federalize VOA and Radio and TV Marti and to limit the independence of the BBG-managed surrogate broadcasters: the Middle East Broadcasting Networks (Alhurra TV and Radio Sawa), Radio Free Asia (RFA) and Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (RFE/RL). Lobo had been appointed to his position by President Obama.

BBG Watch sources describe Trimble and Sherman as the chief authors of the BBG strategic plan which calls for these changes. One source told BBG Watch that not all BBG members supported Sherman’s promotion. BBG Governor Victor Ashe, who has become an outspoken critic of the BBG/IBB management team, was — according to BBG Watch sources — opposed to rewarding Sherman and Trimble with these new positions.

Steven Korn

BBG Watch has also received reliable information that the heads of the Middle East Broadcasting Networks (MBN) and of Radio Free Asia (RFA), Brian Conniff and Libby Liu, have raised serious reservations about the Sherman-Trimble plan to merge MBN and RFA together with RFE/RL into a large corporate bureaucracy. Critics of the BBG strategic plan point out that the main feature that makes these surrogate broadcasters successful is their administrative and editorial independence, while the BBG strategic plan calls for administrative and editorial centralization and creating a BBG global news network.

The head of RFE/RL Steven Korn, an old friend of Walter Isaacson (they both worked at CNN), is described as the only one supporting the merger without any objections. Sources tell us that Korn has been making controversial personnel changes at RFE/RL designed to protect careers of his favorite subordinates after the proposed merger.

###

From an official IBB announcement:

From: IBB Notices Administration [notices@bbg.gov]
Sent: Tuesday, January 10, 2012 5:58 PM
To: IBB Staff
Subject: Message from the IBB Director

Colleagues:

The merger of the IBB and BBG staffs will become effective on January 15, 2012.
This action reflects the Board’s commitment to streamline and increase the efficiency of agency operations, as called for in the newly adopted 2012-2016 Strategic Plan. The merger will facilitate the development of BBG-wide strategies and objectives, strengthen oversight of program and organizational performance, and enhance collaboration among our Federal and non-Federal entities.

An organizational chart showing the restructured, merged IBB/BBG operation is attached. Here are the key changes:

A new Office of Strategy and Development will lead development and implementation of strategy through coordinated planning, agency-level audience research and impact assessment, program placement, development, and international media training. The Office will work with the broadcast services to align strategy at the Agency and language service levels as well as across entities to enhance performance and meet the goals set by the Strategic Plan. It will incorporate the former BBG Office of Strategic Planning and Performance Measurement, the IBB Office of Marketing and Program Placement, and VOA Business Development. Bruce Sherman will serve as director.

The Office of Performance Review takes on enhanced responsibilities under the continued leadership of Kelu Chao. The Office will continue to conduct VOA and OCB language service research and programming reviews. It will now also be responsible for conducting management analyses of the operational effectiveness of all BBG elements and for coordinating inspections and reviews by the Office of Inspector General and the Government Accountability Office. The Office, together with the performance review elements of the non-Federal entities, will also provide feedback to help shape strategy.

The Office of Communications and External Relations is responsible for communications and outreach activities for the Board and will serve as the Board’s chief advisor for Congressional and external relations. The Office also coordinates communications operations of the BBG’s media networks — VOA, RFE, RFA, MBN, and OCB. The Graphics Unit, under the continued supervision of Tuleda Johnson, will move from the Marketing and Program Placement office to the Communications office. The position of Director of the Office of Communications and External Relations was recently advertised, and I hope shortly to be able to announce the selection of the Director of this office.

The Office of New Media has been renamed the Office of Digital and Design Innovation to better reflect its role in the development and implementation of innovative projects, programs, and services across U.S. international media. The Office will continue to play a key role in expanding the use of the best core technology platforms, as well as assisting entities in executing global digital and brand strategies, but also build out the next generation of digital products that present our content in an increasingly complex media landscape. Rob Bole continues as the Director of this Office.

A Board Operations Staff will be formalized under the direction of the Board Secretary and General Counsel, Paul Kollmer-Dorsey, and will continue to support the Board in its meetings and other operations.

The Secretariat staff and the Analysis and Administration Division will be combined as the Administrative and Secretariat Operations Unit. The Unit will coordinate the development, approval and codification of Agency administrative policies in the form of the Broadcasting Administrative Manual and provide Secretariat services to the BBG, along with the Division’s current functions. Doris Garay-Nellius will head this Unit.

I have designated Jeff Trimble as IBB Deputy Director. Jeff will assist me in overseeing IBB operations, and will carry out special projects at my direction, including the ongoing work to create a BBG global news network, a core element of the new Strategic Plan.

While this merger is a significant step, it is only a part of an ongoing, longer-term restructuring process. In coming months we will continue to study and evaluate this new organization, with an eye toward making further changes to achieve greater efficiencies and otherwise improve our performance. I look forward to your continued cooperation and assistance as we move forward.

Regards,

Dick Lobo
IBB Director

New BBG Organizational Chart

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Architects of BBG’s failed China plan rewarded with new positions

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Broadcasting Board Governor Victor Ashe praised for listening to employee concerns

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Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen on 70 years of VOA broadcasting to China

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‘Old white guys’ – National Review links to BBG Watch discrimination and mismanagement story

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 in North Carolina. Ashe also called for urgent reforms in the way the federal agency in charge of U.S. international broadcasting operates. Both Republicans and Democrats in Congress have criticized the BBG for lacking transparency and exercising bad judgement with regard to broadcasting to China.

Victor Ashe’s statement released as a personal wish list for 2012 is unprecedented for a member of the BBG since these presidentially-appointed officials usually do not publicly express their misgivings about how their agency is being managed.

Ashe has become an outspoken critic of the permanent BBG bureaucracy in charge of planning and day-to-day operations of U.S. international broadcasting. He has made his displeasure known by visiting broadcasting services and technical facilities that some of the other BBG members wanted to eliminate based on the recommendations they had received from their executive staff.

It is not clear how the BBG Chairman Walter Isaacson and the other members of the bipartisan board will react to Ashe’s statement. Isaacson, the former Chairman and CEO of CNN, former editor of Time Magazine and the author of the best-selling biography of Steve Jobs, is a Democrat. Ashe, a Republican, was the longest serving mayor of Knoxville and the President to the U.S. Conference of Mayors. He had also served as the U.S. Ambassador to Poland from 2004 to 2009.

In his statement, Ashe calls for keeping open the Edward R. Murrow Greenville Transmitting Station in Greenville, North Carolina, which he had recently visited despite objections from some of the BBG executives who want to close it down.

Ashe said in his statement that this facility is the only one on American soil where the U.S. government has jurisdiction. He pointed out that a similar station in the Philippines, operated by the BBG, is barred from transmitting radio programs to China due to the Philippine government’s reluctance to upset the Chinese government. “That could not happen on American territory,” Ashe noted in his statement.

BBG Governor Victor Ashe and VOA Director David Ensor meeting with VOA China Branch employees - BBG photo

Ashe, joined by the Voice of America Director David Ensor, also met last week with broadcasters of the VOA China Branch in Washington, D.C., 45 of whom were at risk of being fired and their radio and television programs terminated. BBG officials wanted to rely only on the Internet to deliver VOA news in Mandarin to China despite the fact that the Chinese government censors the Internet and blocks VOA Chinese websites. BBG officials claimed that the money saved from ending broadcasts and firing journalists would be used to expand online and new media presence in China.

BBG members had initially accepted their staff’s recommendation to end VOA radio and television programs to China on October 1, 2011, but later reversed their decision after a storm of protests by Chinese Americans, human rights organizations, and the action by members of Congress from both parties to block the silencing of broadcasts.

Ashe was reportedly instrumental in getting other BBG members to sign a Certificate of Recognition, which he and Ensor presented last week to the VOA China Branch to mark the 70th anniversary of VOA broadcasting to China. Ashe expressed his confidence in Ensor’s leadership.

Earlier, the Broadcasting Board of Governors (BBG) public affairs office had refused numerous employee requests to issue a press release about the Capitol Hill reception, hosted by Rep. Dana Rohrabacher, to celebrate the 70th anniversary of Voice of America (VOA) broadcasting to China. BBG public affairs experts also ignored an unprecendented video statement in support of VOA broadcasting to China recorded by the Chairman of the House Committee on Foreign Affairs Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen.

Ashe is said to be also concerned by the way of some of the BBG top managers treat their subordinates and by the second-class status of the agency’s full-time contract employees. In his statement, Ashe refers to the government-wide employee surveys conducted by the Office of Personnel Management, in which the BBG has been consistently rated as being among the worst-managed federal agencies.

Ashe’s comment about “boorish behavior in the work place” may be a partial reference to a description used by a yet to be identified top official appointed by the BBG who was said to be discussing his desire to promote his favorite employees and contrasting them with “old white guys.” Sources have told BBG Watch that some BBG members wanted to have the official fired for making that remark but could not get a majority vote. The official is believed to be a former CNN associate of the BBG Chairman. Several former CNN employees have been hired in recent months by the BBG. BBG Watch sources describe Isaacson was well-meaning but too removed and distracted by the promotion of his recently published biography of Steve Jobs.

Ashe’s statement points to one success in his efforts to improve employee morale. Due to his recent intervention, contract employees at the BBG headquarters in Washington, D.C. were able to receive flu immunization shots to limit the risk of infection to the entire workforce. Until Ashe raised this issue in an open meeting, BBG executives were preventing these employees from receiving free flu shots, as well as denying them most other usual employment benefits, which these full time contractors still do not get.

In his statement, Ashe called for action and not just words to improve employee morale. Contract employees represent nearly half of the Voice of America workforce.

Ashe also paid a recent visit to Alhurra TV and Radio Sawa headquarters in Northern Virginia and praised Brian Conniff, President of the Middle East Broadcasting Networks, Inc. (MBN), and his staff for their dedication in preparing broadcasts to the Middle East.

Ashe is believed to be the only current BBG member who regularly meets with groups of employees and listens to their complaints.

The BBG is likely to face further scrutiny from Congress in 2012. The same BBG executives who wanted to end VOA radio and television broadcasts to China have proposed a merger of Radio Free Asia (RFA), Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (RFE/RL) and MBN into a large corporate bureaucracy and want to de-federalize VOA and Radio and TV Marti.

The Broadcasting Board of Governors encompasses all U.S. civilian international broadcasting, including the Voice of America (VOA), Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (RFE/RL), Radio Free Asia (RFA), Radio and TV Martí, and the Middle East Broadcasting Networks (MBN)—Radio Sawa and Alhurra Television. The Broadcasting Board of Governors is a bipartisan board comprised of nine members. Eight, no more than four from one party, are appointed by the President and confirmed by the U.S. Senate; the ninth is the Secretary of State, who serves ex officio.

BBG Watch (BBGWatch.com), an independent website managed by former and current BBG employees, has obtained a copy of BBG Governor Ashe’s statement, which we post below.

Statement of the Broadcasting Board of Governors (BBG) member Victor H. Ashe

I hope that 2012 sees a new era of employee-management relations for BBG. I feel the Governors are becoming increasingly aware that having 45 percent of all VOA employees as contract employees presents major issues of fairness, concern and accountability. It creates two classes of employees for a single work force.

I hope BBG director Dick Lobo will appoint a broad based committee representing all groups to review the issue and make recommendations to the Board. The BBG governance committee must take a hard look at this. The recent flu shot issue which was favorably resolved highlights how foolish the two classes of employees had become as it made no sense to deny contract employees flu shots while offering them to federal employees all working in the same building and office space. How this ever occurred in the first place surprised me.

Surveys have consistently shown bad morale. We must turn this around. Contract employees are not surveyed by OPM. Recently, IBB sent out a limited survey on the contracts themselves but not on general work place issues. While well intended, that attempt falls short of what is needed to gauge employee thoughts. We must make a New Year’s resolution to do better in this area. We must walk the walk and not just talk the talk.

We must also ring the bell that boorish behavior in the work place will not be tolerated. We must be open and transparent in how we deal with it. I am confident that the new engaged leadership of David Ensor will prevail and create a new climate in this field. He is implementing new procedures.

I felt my visit to the Edward Murrow Transmission facility in Greenville, NC on December 7 was a good one and I learned a lot. I am convinced it is a serious mistake to close this facility which is the only one on American soil where the American government has jurisdiction. The station in the Philippines is barred from transmissions to China due the Philippine government’s reluctance to upset the Chinese government. That could not happen on American territory.

The Murrow facility has been hidden from public view and I urge it to be more visible. Its name had become Site B which is effectively nameless. However, President Kennedy had participated in 1962 naming it for Edward R Murrow, one of our nation’s most respected newscasters. The signs should be re-erected in North Carolina and the public of Pitt County invited to visit. We should be proud of the Murrow facility.

On December 14, I spent most of the day visiting and meeting employees of MBN in Springfield, VA and was deeply impressed by Brian Conniff and his dedicated staff. They are outstanding. In March the full Board plans to meet there.

Women’s Rights Without Frontiers is a broad-based, international coalition that opposes forced abortion and sexual slavery in China. According to BBG Watch, an independent media freedom website, CUSIB supports radio and television broadcasting to China by the Voice of America (VOA) and radio broadcasting by Radio Free Asia (RFA) so that news such as this one are not blocked by the Chinese Internet censors and those in China who want to receive uncensored news do not risk being monitored by the cyber police.

“Batman” star Christian Bale traveled nine hours from Beijing to visit blind forced abortion opponent Chen Guangcheng. Bale said, “What I really wanted to do was shake the man’s hand and say ‘thank you,’ and tell him what an inspiration he is.”

Bale never got the chance. He was roughed up and forced away from Chen’s village, according to a CNN report.

Bale was in Beijing China for the premier of “The Flowers of War,” a drama about the 1937 Rape of Nanjing. About his attempt to visit Chen, Bale stated, “I’m not brave doing this . . . This was just a situation – I can’t look the other way.”

Congressman Chris Smith with CUSIB Advisory Board Member Reggie Littlejohn in front of a large image of Chen Guangcheng created to support the Chen Guangcheng Sunglasses Campaign to win his freedom

Littlejohn contrasted Bale’s actions with those of Relativity Media. “Christian Bale has used his star power to shine a light on the unjust treatment of Chen Guangcheng. In contrast, Relativity Media filmed “21 and Over” in Linyi, where Chen is languishing under house arrest. They did nothing to help Chen. I hope that moviegoers will demonstrate their concern for Chen Guangcheng at the box office. We encourage people to boycott “21 and Over,” said Reggie Littlejohn.

Christian Bale is not the only one who has focused attention on Chen Guangcheng. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and U.S. Ambassador to China Gary Locke have both recently spoken on his behalf. “We urge Ambassador Locke to visit Chen Guangcheng,” stated Littlejohn.

The flow of Chinese citizens to visit Chen despite the risk of beatings and detention, and the Chinese and international “Sunglasses” campaigns, have raised the visibility of Chen’s case as well. These campaigns can be found here and here.

Chen Guangcheng exposed the systematic use of forced abortion and sterilization in Linyi City in 2005. For four years, three months, he was jailed, tortured and denied medical treatment. Since his release he has languished under strict house arrest.

Watch the 3-minute Free Chen video here.

Sign a petition to free Chen here.

Stop Forced Abortion – China’s War on Women! Video (4 mins)

The Committee for U.S. International Broadcasting (CUSIB) is an independent, nongovernmental organization which supports free flow of uncensored news from the United States to countries without free media. CUSIB supports Voice of America (VOA) and Radio Free Asia (RFA) radio broadcasts to China as the only effective and safe way of news delivery that can defeat censorship of the Internet and the monitoring of pro-democracy activists by the Chinese secret police.

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The BBG manages VOA, Radio Free Asia (RFA) and other U.S. government-funded broadcasters.

Reggie Littlejohn said that countless women and children in China are victims of forced abortions and human trafficking under the one child policy. She also talked about human rights activists like Chen Guangcheng who are imprisoned and persecuted by the Chinese government.

Ted Lipien spoke about the importance of the work of Voice of America and Radio Free Asia journalists who bring uncensored news to the people in China.

Timothy Shamble noted that the collapse of communism in the former Soviet Union did not eliminate totalitarian and authoritarian ideologies in countries like Russia and China or the need for assisting the victims of human rights abuses with radio and television broadcasts from the United States.

The Victims of Communism Memorial was dedicated by President George W. Bush on June 12, 2007. The dedication ceremony featured the unveiling of the “Goddess of Democracy,” a bronze replica of a statue erected by Chinese students in Tiananmen Square, Beijing, China in the spring of 1989. Many world leaders visit the memorial site to pay their respects and lay wreaths. It is located at the intersection of Massachusetts Avenue and New Jersey Avenue, NW on Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C.

The Committee for U.S. International Broadcasting (CUSIB) is an independent nongovernmental organization which supports free flow of uncensored news from the United States to countries without free media. CUSIB opposed the Broadcasting Board of Governors plans to end Voice of America radio and television programs to China. These programs were saved thanks to an amendment introduced by Congressman Dana Rohrabacher. The amendment received wide bipartisan support.

On December 6, 2011, Congressman Rohrabacher hosted a reception on Capitol Hill to mark the 70th anniversary of VOA broadcasting to China. The Chairman of the House Committee on Foreign Affairs, Congresswoman Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, attended the reception and recorded a special video message about the importance of VOA news broadcasts for the people in China.
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CUSIB members honor victims of human rights abuses in China, stress importance of VOA and RFA broadcasts

Once again, senior agency officials stirred up a hornets nest with revelations of cash awards handed out in FY2010, especially to themselves.

Cash awards are not uncommon in the Federal Government. Information provided by sources shows that the Broadcasting Board of Governors (BBG) handed out numerous cash awards ranging from $100 to the largest of $10,000.

Cash awards are always highly charged matters. At the heart of it is whether or not the process is seen as fair and the recipients as deserving. As long as the agency puts money in the mix, these issues won’t go away. What makes these particularly worrisome is the following:

This is one of the worst agencies in the Federal Government. The agency has virtually institutionalized itself as a bottom dweller in the government-wide employee surveys of Federal workplaces. To all outward appearances, the BBG has had no significant impact on reversing the agency’s miserable showing in these surveys. Consistently, the agency is dead last in the category of Leadership and reinforces that position daily.

For example, agency officials, including those at the higher end of the awards pyramid, hold regular meetings with employee representatives. These meetings have only one useful purpose: they serve as a sterling demonstration of the chasm that separates these officials from the professional staff that does the real work of US international broadcasting. As we have noted before, these meetings are “motion without movement.” In terms of substance, they accomplish nothing of significance, certainly on threshold issues. They are an exercise in futility.

The employee representatives would be better served to exercise their rights under their contracts and the Federal Labor Relations Statute to hold the agency’s feet to the fire for the hostile work environment these officials have willfully constructed over the years. These employee representatives are also better served by their efforts to bring the issue of agency mismanagement out in front with the Congress and with the public. That is where the real productive work needs to be done. There is nothing to be accomplished inside the Cohen Building. These agency officials have consistently stonewalled any meaningful or legitimate process of getting to the substance of problems. The message to employee representatives: take matters elsewhere.

In addition, the Federal workforce is under a pay freeze for an indeterminate period of time. Some Members of Congress want the Federal workforce to take a 10 percent salary cut. When the BBG approves and hands out big cash awards to its senior officials – on top of everything else we’ve mentioned – it has the appearance and essentially the fact of getting around that pay freeze for a small and select group of already highly-paid individuals, particularly those who hold Senior Executive Service (SES) positions.

In one of its more recent press releases trumpeting its proposed reorganization of US international broadcasting, one of the features highlighted would be that the BBG’s new identity would be “more corporate in nature.”

“Corporate” is a bad word in today’s America. Corporate as in Enron, Lehman Brothers and others. Corporate as in Bank of America trying to rip off its depositors with new fees for using their own money. Corporate as in the astronomical bonuses corporate executives receive.

The corporate mentality is already well-entrenched among senior agency officials who were the beneficiaries of some hefty bonuses/cash awards in FY2010 and perhaps with more to come for FY2011. In many ways, the latest blow-up on management bonuses parallels that of the corporate world where executives receive lucrative bonuses while running various companies into the ground and putting employees out of work. The excesses we’ve come to know and expect from Wall Street appear to have taken root within the Cohen Building.

This isn’t the first time that senior agency officials find themselves riding in First Class on the gravy train. And you can best be assured that it won’t be the last if they have any say in the matter. And they most certainly do.

This is the kind of thing that enrages people, and not just inside the Cohen Building. Any congressional staffer can put together a spread sheet of agency employees and see how the awards were parsed out. On the one hand, they can see an employee at the lower end of the pay spread (around $40,000) getting no award while someone at the high end of the pay pyramid (over $170,000) pulls in an astounding award of $10,000. By nature – and the Cohen Building reaction proves this out – cash awards are divisive. They delineate haves and have-nots. They can be capricious, arbitrary and – at their worst – mercenary. Some employees are more adept at self-promotion while others show up day after day and get the job done without fanfare. Some managers and supervisors are more attentive to getting recognition for their employees. Others are not. Last but not least, senior officials hold an unfair advantage over everyone.

The Federalist is old school. The Federalist believes that government service is its own reward. Generally, BBG employees and officials are paid rather handsomely. As US Government employees, they have excellent retirement and health benefits that are the exception rather than the rule throughout the US. It is all fine and good to recognize employee contributions with plaques and the like. It is all fine and good to recognize superior performance with an in-grade step increase. Cash awards: not a good idea.

And what we see from the BBG is the potential for the worst of amoral corporate behavior being replicated inside the Federal Government with the manner in which these cash awards are handled.

Once again, keep in mind that at the end of the day, the BBG corporatists are planning to downsize US international broadcasting and bring on a reduction-in-force (RIF), the “blood on the floor” that VOA director David Ensor has referred to.

The BBG and its senior staff are presiding over a systematic attempt to cripple US international broadcasting. This effort is embodied in its alleged “strategic plan,” which we prefer to see in the context of the BBG/IBB “flim, flam plan.” This plan represents a serious danger to US national interests and national security. It is wholly reckless and irresponsible, making it something to be loathed, opposed and rejected.

The component parts of how the BBG intends to process this plan make it worse. At its core, the true result of this plan is to downsize US international broadcasting, wiping out virtually all effective direct broadcasting and relying upon the Internet as its sole source platform for audio, video and text. This includes strategic countries and regions where the Internet is not generally available or affordable or is being effectively blocked and will continue to be blocked for the foreseeable future. The BBG’s own “audience research” shows that its Internet following is a mere pittance of 10 million in world demographics. As we pointed out previously, in a world of 7 billion people that amounts to dust in the wind, something barely heard in the diverse and diffuse cacophony of what passes for global media in today’s world.

As part of the BBG’s “strategic destruction plan,” it has been noted that there will be demoralizing “staff disruptions.” That’s another way of saying that people are going to lose their jobs. The Deloitte consultant report acknowledges this (even if they haven’t figured out or know how this will be executed) and urges the Board to conduct its decimation of the workforce as quickly as possibly (of course, leaving surviving workforce more demoralized and traumatized). VOA director David Ensor has also graphically made the point by saying that there will be, “Blood on the floor.”

This is the hostile and corrosive work environment of US international broadcasting. These parallel tracks of senior officials getting large cash awards and pursuing what we see as a damaging reorganization intending to reduce the effectiveness of US Government international broadcasting that leave people to question the propriety of the corporate-like behavior of senior agency officials.

If the process of cash awards continues, the BBG needs to be asking itself some serious questions and put in place some mandatory controls in order to be open, transparent and accountable. It should be asking the following kinds of questions being asked by agency employees – and others – and getting real answers, not IBB mumbo-jumbo:

• Who approved these awards?

• Who nominated the individual awardees?

• On what basis were individuals judged to be deserving?

• Are the criteria for these awards available publicly?

• How was a conflict of interest avoided, particularly for the group of awardees who hold senior official positions? How will conflict of interest issues be avoided in the future?

• How are the dollar amounts of awards calculated?

• What are the guidelines for making these awards public and transparent?

• How does the BBG intend to limit the size of awards to senior officials particularly when juxtaposed to lesser salaries of lower paid agency employees?

• Were these awards given as “Superior Achievement Awards?” What is the narrative given to justify this kind of award to the specific individual?

• If these awards/bonuses were approved by members of the BBG, what was the written explanation submitted to justify these awards and by whom?

• Have awards been approved for FY2011? How are these awards funded?

If the BBG can’t – or won’t – be responsive to these questions, it speaks volumes to a practice that has been corrupted.

There is quite a lot not to like about the conduct of US international broadcasting by the BBG/IBB. This awards issue doesn’t improve the picture at all. It is not a personal play toy for a handful of individuals who, to appearances, use it as an opportunistic tool for self-aggrandizement. US strategic interests are hard-pressed on many fronts. The collapse of US international broadcasting – which has already been set in motion and which the BBG/IBB plans for the future – makes the national interests and US national security all the more vulnerable.

On that leadership issue: the BBG should learn from what the Social Security Administration did for FY2010. Cash awards for its SES officials: $0.
US international broadcasting needs leadership which raises the bar on professional standards, not lowers it to a vehicle for facilitating personal greed and avarice.

The Federalist
December 8, 2011

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The Broadcasting Board of Governors – Cold Hard Cash