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February 16, 2011

Obama cuts off VOA funding for China; gives it to NPR

Ed Lasky
President Obama's propaganda priorities are becoming clearer. Does the community activist-in-chief care about a billion Chinese and what they know about their dictatorial government? Community organizers are supposed to speak truth to power. How can the Chinese people speak truth to power when they are cut off from learning the truth?

Bill Gertz of the Washington Times reports:
The Obama administration will cancel shortwave radio broadcasts by Voice of America into China this year, as Beijing is expanding its propaganda operations in the United States and around the world.

Critics of the broadcasting cuts, announced Monday, said major reductions in staff and shortwave broadcasts will sharply curtail an important outlet for unfiltered news and information for large numbers of people in China, especially areas such as Tibet and western Xinjiang province, where pro-democracy forces are opposing Chinese rule.

"This is another alarming sign that America is cowering before China‘s gangster regime," said Rep. Dana Rohrabacher, California Republican and member of the House Foreign Affairs Committee. "The Chinese people are our greatest allies, and the free flow of information is our greatest weapon."

The cuts were outlined as a cost-cutting measure in the fiscal 2012 budget report of the Broadcasting Board of Governors, VOA's parent agency.

We are told that a new focus will be directed towards digital media.

This is wrongheaded on many levels. The internet is quite easy to filter or just cut off.  Plus, many people in remote areas lack access to the internet:

Critics of the broadcasting cuts, announced Monday, said major reductions in staff and shortwave broadcasts will sharply curtail an important outlet for unfiltered news and information for large numbers of people in China, especially areas such as Tibet and western Xinjiang province, where pro-democracy forces are opposing Chinese rule.

"This is another alarming sign that America is cowering before China‘s gangster regime," said Rep. Dana Rohrabacher, California Republican and member of the House Foreign Affairs Committee. "The Chinese people are our greatest allies, and the free flow of information is our greatest weapon."

Apparently, the Chinese were not cooperating by refusing to provide affiliates to rebroadcast programs through Chinese radio stations and America was afraid to push the issue for fear that American academics might not be welcomed into China. That is appalling: placing some US academics -- who normally favor the nations and regimes that study -- above a billion Chinese people yearning for liberty.

Former Broadcast Board of Governors member Blanquita Cullum said now is not the time to limit broadcasts into closed societies like communist China.

"When it comes to pro-democracy broadcasting to the world and with events like Egypt happening, this is not the time to retreat," she said. "This is the time to advance and reach out with more broadcasting."

Internet-only broadcasting will prevent millions of Chinese from getting news and information, especially those in restricted areas. "Our broadcasts must not only be focused only on the elites but should target the masses who are protesting against the elites," Ms. Cullum said.

Past uprisings were met by the Chinese government denying internet access and cutting phone lines-radio was the option the Chinese people relied upon-and now Obama is cutting off their lifeline to the rest of the free world.

This cut off will be especially damaging to the people of Tibet who rely on the short wave radio broadcast since their access to the internet is sharply limited. This is just one more insult to them -the Dalai Lama is already bruised from his mistreatment by the Obama administration. Now his people can join the club of people dismissed as unimportant by Barack Obama.

China imprisons human rights activists (including the most recent Nobel Peace Prize winner) and imposes censorship throughout China -- as shown by its recent skirmish with Google.  Barack Obama all but ignored the Nobel Peace Prize winner while he feted the Chinese communist dictator at a White House state dinner-where the Chinese chose to play a song that disparaged America-an insult to America delivered inside the walls of the White House. Now the budget busting President decides to save some money by cutting off funding for shortwave radio broadcast into China by the Voice of America.

How much is "saved"? Eight million dollars.

Meanwhile, back in America, National Public Radio (NPR) sends a valentine to Barack Obama for pouring even more money into their coffers. Byron York writes in the Washington Examiner:

As some Republicans on Capitol Hill try to cut, or even eliminate, its government funding, National Public Radio has sent a public thank-you to the Obama administration for proposing an increase in taxpayer funding for public radio.

"Public broadcasting received a vote of confidence today from the Obama Administration," NPR said in a statement Monday.  "The President's FY 2012 budget submission to Congress included $451 million for the Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB) for the two year advance appropriation for FY 2014, an increase of $6 million over FY 2013 funding."

Vivian Schiller, the head of NPR -- and focus of much controversy over the firing last year of commentator Juan Williams -- released a statement saying she is "grateful to the Obama Administration for recognizing the importance of public radio to the life of communities across the nation."

There have been many valid arguments that NPR does not need taxpayer money-especially in the amounts it receives annually-to fund its operations. There are many other outlets -- the internet, cable, satellite -- that people can access that are funded by charities, foundations, or by subscription fees. NPR is an anachronism in America. But NPR is all but a Democratic propaganda machine that American taxpayers fund. The increase in the NPR budget could almost pay for the shortwave broadcast into China by the Voice of America.

Barack Obama wants to cut off the Voice of America and give more money and a bigger megaphone to the Voice of NPR.

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