Dems: Don't Outsource Our Propaganda!

The Voice of America, that purveyor of comatose, sub-Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty programming that costs Americans $160 million a year, has decided to move a whopping 8 of its 1,400 employees to Hong Kong. This has Democrats, including John Kerry, hopping mad:

In a strongly worded letter to VOA Director David Jackson, 14 Democratic senators said the shift would undermine VOA's mandate to "present a balanced and therefore comprehensive projection of significant American thought and institutions." [...]

"We find it difficult to believe VOA will be able to satisfy its mission of projecting 'significant American thought' through non-American citizens," the letter said.

The Chicago Tribune article is full of laughs, including the complaint by the American Federation of Government Employees that the outsourcing "is financially motivated." Noooooo!!! (Link via Romenesko.)

Comments

zach | June 21, 2005, 2:16pm | #

that's 1.75 senators per relocated employee.

joe | June 21, 2005, 2:19pm | #

I'm sure Taiwanese contractors can advance American propaganda efforts just as effectively as Iraqi security forces can advance our military efforts.

Would Reason allow its articles to be written by people who aren't libertarians if they could write more cheaply? VOA doesn't stick Barbie heads on Barbie bodies, you know.

The Great Ape | June 21, 2005, 2:23pm | #

right joe, b/c Tocqueville did such a horrible job writing on American thought and systems.

B.P. | June 21, 2005, 2:31pm | #

There's a NYT article in my local paper today about a N. Korean defector who wrote a book about spending 10 years in a N. Korean gulag. Pres. Bush read the book and invited him to the White House last week. The defector said in the book that people in PRK rely on foreign radio programs for motivation. Hmmm...

Matt Welch | June 21, 2005, 2:41pm | #

B.P. -- I've met many residents of current or former totalitarian countries who were eternally grateful for the piped-in radio.

joe | June 21, 2005, 2:42pm | #

You people raise good points about the effectiveness of using foreign (to us), which is to say local (to them), content providers.

Ironchef | June 21, 2005, 2:47pm | #

Ahhhh, the "strongly worded letter", that oh-so persuasive tool of policy.

Matt Welch | June 21, 2005, 2:48pm | #

joe -- The most effective employees of Radio Free Europe back in the day were exiles from Central Europe, who worked in Munich. After the Cold War, the whole HQ of RFE was "outsourced" to Prague, where it now pipes in programming to effed-up Middle Eastern and Central Asian countries. I think there are statutory restrictions preventing our Concerned Senators from demanding that the facility be re-located to Omaha, and at any rate I think that wouldn't be the most clever idea.

joe | June 21, 2005, 2:54pm | #

I wish the link wasn't to a subsciption-only site, because the heart of this controversy seems to be, which jobs?

jimmy | June 21, 2005, 2:55pm | #

why hasn't lou dobbs done a story about this yet? he can call it "broken voices, broken choices" or something like that, and do a TV poll of his sheep-like viewers about whether this threatens our "security". unfortunately he can't blame mexico for this one, but china is almost as good a scapegoat for him.

Matt Welch | June 21, 2005, 2:59pm | #

joe -- I didn't notice it was registration. Try www.bugmenot.com, or do a news.google.com search on "Voice of America" and "Hong Kong." The jobs have to do with the night shift, if memory serves.

Stretch | June 21, 2005, 2:59pm | #

Jackson said VOA has processed transfer requests for all eight employees, and that no jobs will be lost during the transition.

So then, in addition to keeping eight American employees with their salaries and benefits, VOA is actually adding eight more in HK, right? It can hardly be considered a "financial decision" in that case.

Mark Borok | June 21, 2005, 3:01pm | #

B.P. -- I've met many residents of current or former totalitarian countries who were eternally grateful for the piped-in radio.

My grandfather used to listen to it religiously, back in the U.S.S.R. It was the only way to find out what was really going on in the outside world.

Crusader Rabbit | June 21, 2005, 3:15pm | #

Why not move them to Guantanamo Bay . . . that's officially not part of any country.

Some Guy Who's Married to a VOA Staffer | June 21, 2005, 3:20pm | #

What they're talking about moving is 8 English-language staffers, who'll in Hong Kong be doing the equivalent of VOA's "overnight shift," thus earning regular pay... as compared to the current overnighters, who get a government-set premium for, you know, clipping headlines.

It's the English global service, not the Mandarin branch (or the Cantonese branch), so the Chinese fears are overblown.

Union, of course, is screaming (and other journalists, knowing as they do the actual skills necessary to rewrite a press release, are terrified.) But this will likely not go through.

English-speaking employees of VOA are by far the least valuable, with at times adolescent journalistic standards, sub-par writing skills, etc. (You'll note most of those who praise VOA likely heard the news in their native tongue).

Douglas Fletcher | June 21, 2005, 4:06pm | #

I used to listen to the english Radio Peking when I was out floating around on the taxpayer funded USS Lawrence (ret.). It was always fascinating to hear lists of how many tractor gears had been produced at the various factories in various provinces. Is VOA programming more interesting than that?

R C Dean | June 21, 2005, 4:54pm | #

that's 1.75 senators per relocated employee.

In terms of total IQ, or what?

joe | June 21, 2005, 11:28pm | #

Showing the work on the math was particularly helpful, since once these eight jobs are filled, there won't be any consideration of the other 1400 American VOA employees' jobs.

Stevo Darkly | June 22, 2005, 1:18pm | #

B.P. -- I've met many residents of current or former totalitarian countries who were eternally grateful for the piped-in radio.

My grandfather used to listen to it religiously, back in the U.S.S.R.

"You don't know how lucky you are, boy..."