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Congratulations on the successful launch! > .. I’d listen to the Voice of America.. I grew up listening to VoA as a kid as well, I was born in a then not so d

by sokols 2y ago

Congratulations on the successful launch! > .. I’d listen to the Voice of America.. I grew up listening to VoA as a kid as well, I was born in a then not so developed part of the Balkans. Sometimes I have the feeling that the ordinary Americans don't have a clue about the impact VoA had in the countries like ours.

clarionbell 2y ago
Those in government right now certainly don't, or they don't care.
- alistairSH 2y ago
  Where "those in government" is "Trump, Musk, and their minions", yep. The actual bureaucrats are mostly pissed off.
blackoil 2y ago
My father/grandfather were avid fans of international broadcasts. VoA, Radio Nippon, Deutsche Weller, BBC. By our childhood, TV came with 2 channels and in adolescence 60. My son has access to YouTube, Netflix...
StefanBatory 2y ago
I am Polish; I didn't grew up during period of Communist occupation, but I've certainly heard of stories of people risking their wellbeing via trying to listen to VoA. It was very much a big crime.
- epolanski 2y ago
  Radio Wolna Europa was the one that my parents and grandparents listened to more often in communist Poland.
  - omega1 2y ago
    In my town (in Czechoslovakia), of the people of my generation, only those who listened to the BBC or VoA knew who the Vaclav Havel was, who became the first president after the fall of communism. I can't imagine the chaos that would happen if no one had any true information at the time of the fall of communism.
  - StefanBatory 2y ago
    I might have been mistaken on that one, I'll fully admit. I am not sure if it was Głos Ameryki or Radio Wolna Europa - but my comment applies to both of them, anyway.
Dracophoenix 2y ago
> Sometimes I have the feeling that the ordinary Americans don't have a clue about the impact VoA had in the countries like ours. It's not a feeling. They don't know because domestic broadcasts of VoA were prohibited by federal law.
- itishappy 2y ago
  Until 2012. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Defense_Authorization_Act_for_Fiscal_Year_2013#Smith%E2%80%93Mundt_Modernization_Act_of_2012 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Defense_Authorization...
thinkingtoilet 2y ago
As an American, I literally have no idea what Voice of America is.
- itishappy 2y ago
  It's America's state-sponsored propaganda network. It wasn't even allowed to broadcast to Americans until last decade. Despite the label, it's been a pretty good source, though admittedly with a pro-US bias. Now it looks like it's been DOGEd. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Voice_of_America https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Voice_of_America https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Defense_Authorization_Act_for_Fiscal_Year_2013#Smith%E2%80%93Mundt_Modernization_Act_of_2012 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Defense_Authorization...
- bluGill 2y ago
  It is americas foreign propoganda program. is was intentionally made hard for americans to listen to. That it was hard to get at meant the types of people who want to control government propoganda didn't care and so it turned out to be a reasonable source of low bias information.
  - ge96 2y ago
    What do you think NHK is? Same thing but Japanese? It seems cool like people fishing for Ayu.
    - lawlessone 2y ago
      Could get that on cable in Ireland, i remember just leaving it on because it was just relaxing to listen to.
    - kalleboo 2y ago
      The difference is that public broadcasters like NHK, BBC etc are usually set up to be nominally independent from the government, usually through a license fee enforced separate from taxes.
- hkpack 2y ago
mrguyorama 2y ago
Trump has defunded VoA. >https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cvge4l109r3o https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cvge4l109r3o Good luck to anyone in a shitty regime that thought they could at least rely on American propaganda to get some useful info from an alternative. Despite VoA being cheap and enormously effective, and being something no Americans care about, he still kills it. Gee, I wonder who benefits most from VoA dying?
mmooss 2y ago
Out of curiosity, why VOA and not the BBC or something else?
- scrappyjoe 2y ago
  This reply is quite late, but I thought I’d answer it anyway. When I was a child, I enjoyed the VoA more than the BBC Africa service, and when I was a teen my preferences swapped. I had never really thought about why before. And I had never really clicked that the VoA was a propaganda tool. My best answer is that listening to the VoA as a kid was just way more fun than the BBC. And maybe it being propaganda was a big reason for that. Stories were simple, there were good guys and bad guys, science was awesome and we might make it to Mars by the year 2000. As I got older, I started to see that things weren’t so simple, I wanted unbiased, or at least balanced, reporting about the region I lived in, and then BBC Africa took over.

by sokols 2y ago

clarionbell 2y ago

Those in government right now certainly don't, or they don't care.

alistairSH 2y ago
Where "those in government" is "Trump, Musk, and their minions", yep. The actual bureaucrats are mostly pissed off.

blackoil 2y ago

My father/grandfather were avid fans of international broadcasts. VoA, Radio Nippon, Deutsche Weller, BBC. By our childhood, TV came with 2 channels and in adolescence 60. My son has access to YouTube, Netflix...

StefanBatory 2y ago

I am Polish; I didn't grew up during period of Communist occupation, but I've certainly heard of stories of people risking their wellbeing via trying to listen to VoA. It was very much a big crime.

epolanski 2y ago
Radio Wolna Europa was the one that my parents and grandparents listened to more often in communist Poland.
- omega1 2y ago
  In my town (in Czechoslovakia), of the people of my generation, only those who listened to the BBC or VoA knew who the Vaclav Havel was, who became the first president after the fall of communism. I can't imagine the chaos that would happen if no one had any true information at the time of the fall of communism.
- StefanBatory 2y ago
  I might have been mistaken on that one, I'll fully admit. I am not sure if it was Głos Ameryki or Radio Wolna Europa - but my comment applies to both of them, anyway.

Dracophoenix 2y ago

> Sometimes I have the feeling that the ordinary Americans don't have a clue about the impact VoA had in the countries like ours. It's not a feeling. They don't know because domestic broadcasts of VoA were prohibited by federal law.

itishappy 2y ago
Until 2012. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Defense_Authorization_Act_for_Fiscal_Year_2013#Smith%E2%80%93Mundt_Modernization_Act_of_2012 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Defense_Authorization...

thinkingtoilet 2y ago

As an American, I literally have no idea what Voice of America is.

itishappy 2y ago
It's America's state-sponsored propaganda network. It wasn't even allowed to broadcast to Americans until last decade. Despite the label, it's been a pretty good source, though admittedly with a pro-US bias. Now it looks like it's been DOGEd. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Voice_of_America https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Voice_of_America https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Defense_Authorization_Act_for_Fiscal_Year_2013#Smith%E2%80%93Mundt_Modernization_Act_of_2012 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Defense_Authorization...
bluGill 2y ago
It is americas foreign propoganda program. is was intentionally made hard for americans to listen to. That it was hard to get at meant the types of people who want to control government propoganda didn't care and so it turned out to be a reasonable source of low bias information.
- ge96 2y ago
  What do you think NHK is? Same thing but Japanese? It seems cool like people fishing for Ayu.
  - lawlessone 2y ago
    Could get that on cable in Ireland, i remember just leaving it on because it was just relaxing to listen to.
  - kalleboo 2y ago
    The difference is that public broadcasters like NHK, BBC etc are usually set up to be nominally independent from the government, usually through a license fee enforced separate from taxes.
hkpack 2y ago

mrguyorama 2y ago

Trump has defunded VoA. >https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cvge4l109r3o https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cvge4l109r3o Good luck to anyone in a shitty regime that thought they could at least rely on American propaganda to get some useful info from an alternative. Despite VoA being cheap and enormously effective, and being something no Americans care about, he still kills it. Gee, I wonder who benefits most from VoA dying?

mmooss 2y ago

Out of curiosity, why VOA and not the BBC or something else?

scrappyjoe 2y ago
This reply is quite late, but I thought I’d answer it anyway. When I was a child, I enjoyed the VoA more than the BBC Africa service, and when I was a teen my preferences swapped. I had never really thought about why before. And I had never really clicked that the VoA was a propaganda tool. My best answer is that listening to the VoA as a kid was just way more fun than the BBC. And maybe it being propaganda was a big reason for that. Stories were simple, there were good guys and bad guys, science was awesome and we might make it to Mars by the year 2000. As I got older, I started to see that things weren’t so simple, I wanted unbiased, or at least balanced, reporting about the region I lived in, and then BBC Africa took over.