4 ms·

Voice of America CEO Accused of Fraud, Misuse of Office All in One Week

80 points by secfirstmd 6y ago

DoctorNick 6y ago
An employee of Voice of America is accused of propagandizing it?! Say it isn't so!
- coolgod 6y ago
  He needs to start a Radio Free America to save his legacy.
secfirstmd 6y ago
FYI for some who may not know. U.S. Agency for Global Media covers a lot of different things, VOA, Radio Free Asia etc. Also from a tech point of view lots of open source tools like Signal, Tor, Psiphon, Briar and our own app Umbrella security training app along with a huge amount of internet freedom/privacy training, research etc would not have been developed and done without the support of the Open Tech Fund. More on that: https://www.nytimes.com/2020/12/19/us/politics/trump-appointee-seeks-to-cut-off-funding-for-global-internet-access-group.html https://www.nytimes.com/2020/12/19/us/politics/trump-appoint... https://www.hrw.org/news/2020/06/19/us-congress-should-back-open-technology-fund https://www.hrw.org/news/2020/06/19/us-congress-should-back-...
paxys 6y ago
> Trump-appointed CEO That pretty much says everything. Is there any Trump appointee not using their office for personal gain or to allow/enforce illegal orders?
- minikites 6y ago
  No, otherwise they'd have been replaced long ago.
  - simonh 6y ago
    Well they have to be caught at it first, and I know many of them have but it seems likely some slipped through the net.
  - akhilcacharya 6y ago
    Pack only assumed office mid last year and has been embroiled in other crises since then
pseudo0 6y ago
There is some rather deep irony in whistleblowers accusing Pack of trying to propagandize Voice of America. To provide some context, it was founded during WW2 as a "counter-propaganda" broadcaster. It continued this role during the Cold War, albeit under the Department of State. In fact, up until 2013, VOA broadcasts were banned in the US under the Smith-Mundt Act, which regulates propaganda activities conducted by the Department of State (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Smith%E2%80%93Mundt_Act https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Smith%E2%80%93Mundt_Act).
- Apocryphon 6y ago
  Another irony is NPR breaking this news, as they came under attack for bias during the Obama administration.
  - JadeNB 6y ago
    Like anyone who provides information, NPR is accused of bias by the people who are made to look bad by that information.
    - Apocryphon 6y ago
      I'm not claiming NPR is biased, I'm saying it's amusing that it was the three-letter U.S. public news service that got embroiled in scandal in the last administration. Not that the scandal was actually substantiative.
      - xnx 6y ago
        NPR receives no federal funding. Voice of America is 100% federaly funded.
      - JadeNB 6y ago
        > I'm not claiming NPR is biased, I'm saying it's amusing that it was the three-letter U.S. public news service that got embroiled in scandal in the last administration. Not that the scandal was actually substantiative. I thought that it was probably so, but my point is that accusations of bias are not the same as being "embroiled in scandal"; rather they are a routine part of daily operations for any news outlet.
Bucephalus355 6y ago
I can't comment on all parts of Voice of America, but Ultrasurf and Dynamic Internet Technology have been a fraud for some time [1]. The Tor Project had a wonderful review some years ago where they showed how preposterous it was to expect to challenge "The Great Firewall" with these tools [2]. [1] - http://ultrasurf.us http://ultrasurf.us and http://dit-inc.us http://dit-inc.us [2] - https://blog.torproject.org/ultrasurf-definitive-review https://blog.torproject.org/ultrasurf-definitive-review
Hnrobert42 6y ago
Not having to read about Pack and Ajit Pai’s is one of thing things I am most looking forward to.
jessaustin 6y ago
Disclosures... Because of NPR CEO John Lansing's prior role as CEO of the U.S. Agency for Global Media, no senior news executive or corporate executive at NPR reviewed this story before it was published. Additionally, former NPR CEO Kevin Klose was twice president of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty and a signatory of the letter to President-elect Biden. Well, that's complicated. Why is there a revolving door between external propaganda and internal propaganda?
- duxup 6y ago
  I suppose managing a media org and managing a media org really is a similar job.
  - jessaustin 6y ago
    We all seem to agree that USA media orgs are for USA propaganda, the proper imposition of which benefits from experienced management.
    - duxup 6y ago
      I'm not sure I agree with that, but that's a pretty vague statement so I really don't know what you're saying exactly.

80 points by secfirstmd 6y ago

DoctorNick 6y ago

An employee of Voice of America is accused of propagandizing it?! Say it isn't so!

coolgod 6y ago
He needs to start a Radio Free America to save his legacy.

secfirstmd 6y ago

FYI for some who may not know. U.S. Agency for Global Media covers a lot of different things, VOA, Radio Free Asia etc. Also from a tech point of view lots of open source tools like Signal, Tor, Psiphon, Briar and our own app Umbrella security training app along with a huge amount of internet freedom/privacy training, research etc would not have been developed and done without the support of the Open Tech Fund. More on that: https://www.nytimes.com/2020/12/19/us/politics/trump-appointee-seeks-to-cut-off-funding-for-global-internet-access-group.html https://www.nytimes.com/2020/12/19/us/politics/trump-appoint... https://www.hrw.org/news/2020/06/19/us-congress-should-back-open-technology-fund https://www.hrw.org/news/2020/06/19/us-congress-should-back-...

paxys 6y ago

> Trump-appointed CEO That pretty much says everything. Is there any Trump appointee not using their office for personal gain or to allow/enforce illegal orders?

minikites 6y ago
No, otherwise they'd have been replaced long ago.
- simonh 6y ago
  Well they have to be caught at it first, and I know many of them have but it seems likely some slipped through the net.
- akhilcacharya 6y ago
  Pack only assumed office mid last year and has been embroiled in other crises since then

pseudo0 6y ago

There is some rather deep irony in whistleblowers accusing Pack of trying to propagandize Voice of America. To provide some context, it was founded during WW2 as a "counter-propaganda" broadcaster. It continued this role during the Cold War, albeit under the Department of State. In fact, up until 2013, VOA broadcasts were banned in the US under the Smith-Mundt Act, which regulates propaganda activities conducted by the Department of State (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Smith%E2%80%93Mundt_Act https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Smith%E2%80%93Mundt_Act).

Apocryphon 6y ago
Another irony is NPR breaking this news, as they came under attack for bias during the Obama administration.
- JadeNB 6y ago
  Like anyone who provides information, NPR is accused of bias by the people who are made to look bad by that information.
  - Apocryphon 6y ago
    I'm not claiming NPR is biased, I'm saying it's amusing that it was the three-letter U.S. public news service that got embroiled in scandal in the last administration. Not that the scandal was actually substantiative.
    - xnx 6y ago
      NPR receives no federal funding. Voice of America is 100% federaly funded.
    - JadeNB 6y ago
      > I'm not claiming NPR is biased, I'm saying it's amusing that it was the three-letter U.S. public news service that got embroiled in scandal in the last administration. Not that the scandal was actually substantiative. I thought that it was probably so, but my point is that accusations of bias are not the same as being "embroiled in scandal"; rather they are a routine part of daily operations for any news outlet.

Bucephalus355 6y ago

I can't comment on all parts of Voice of America, but Ultrasurf and Dynamic Internet Technology have been a fraud for some time [1]. The Tor Project had a wonderful review some years ago where they showed how preposterous it was to expect to challenge "The Great Firewall" with these tools [2]. [1] - http://ultrasurf.us http://ultrasurf.us and http://dit-inc.us http://dit-inc.us [2] - https://blog.torproject.org/ultrasurf-definitive-review https://blog.torproject.org/ultrasurf-definitive-review

Hnrobert42 6y ago

Not having to read about Pack and Ajit Pai’s is one of thing things I am most looking forward to.

jessaustin 6y ago

Disclosures... Because of NPR CEO John Lansing's prior role as CEO of the U.S. Agency for Global Media, no senior news executive or corporate executive at NPR reviewed this story before it was published. Additionally, former NPR CEO Kevin Klose was twice president of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty and a signatory of the letter to President-elect Biden. Well, that's complicated. Why is there a revolving door between external propaganda and internal propaganda?

duxup 6y ago
I suppose managing a media org and managing a media org really is a similar job.
- jessaustin 6y ago
  We all seem to agree that USA media orgs are for USA propaganda, the proper imposition of which benefits from experienced management.
  - duxup 6y ago
    I'm not sure I agree with that, but that's a pretty vague statement so I really don't know what you're saying exactly.