Dubya et al, are going to do what?


"Voice of America gets flak over outsourcing decision"

By Sam Singer Washington Bureau - Chicago Tribune

Tue Jun 21, 9:40 AM ET

Labor leaders and activists have denounced the business community
for years for "outsourcing" work to other countries. Now the
federal government is planning to shift a handful of highly
symbolic jobs overseas, and labor unions and lawmakers are
protesting angrily.

The Voice of America recently decided to move part of its late
night news operation to Hong Kong, possibly hiring foreign
workers. That has caught the attention of the Democrats on the
Senate Foreign Relations Committee, who are joining labor groups
in urging the news service to keep the positions inside U.S.
borders.

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."

Impartial advocates?

According to its charter, VOA must further long-term American
interests by "presenting the policies of the United States clearly
and effectively" while remaining a "consistently reliable and
authoritative source of news."

That ambiguous language, which seems to provide for both advocacy
and journalistic objectivity, lies at the heart of an ongoing
tension over VOA's mission. The decision to move eight jobs to
Hong Kong has inflamed that tension far beyond the number of
employees affected.

The news service, which has been on air since 1942, receives its
funding from the Broadcasting Board of Governors, which oversees
more than a half-dozen government-sponsored international
broadcasting services, such as Radio Free Asia and Radio Sawa, a
U.S.-funded Arab-language pop music and news station.

VOA has a budget of almost $160 million and employs more than
1,400 workers. Some of them work overseas, but they are either
U.S. citizens or freelance workers hired by regional VOA bureaus.
The service has never before moved an entire news shift overseas,
and critics are afraid it won't be the last.

Some, including the senators who signed the letter, hold that
VOA's function as a mouthpiece for American values precludes it
from contracting out writing work to non-citizens.

"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.

One of the signatories is Sen. John Kerry (D-Mass.), last year's
Democratic presidential nominee and a member of the Foreign
Relations Committee.

Jackson sees things differently. He said expansion in East Asia
will allow the service to be closer to an increasingly important
source of news.

Aside from its government funding, the director said the
distinctions between VOA and other international news networks are
few and far between.

`We don't do propaganda'

"We are independent journalists," Jackson said. "We cover stories
because they're news. We don't do propaganda."

In this light, he said, the Hong Kong decision was nothing more
than an efficiency measure--a way to get news to international
audiences more quickly. "We need to move faster to cover news, and
we need to be closer to the action," Jackson said.

Some labor groups don't buy it. Although the job shuffle will
involve only eight employees, it will save VOA almost $300,000,
mostly in health-care costs. The powerful American Federation of
Government Employees argues that VOA's decision is financially
motivated.

John Threlkeld, a lobbyist with the federation, said the posts in
question are not for reporters but for English language news
writers--positions he said need no proximity to the source of the
news.

Tim Shamble, president of the Washington chapter of AFGE,
questioned Jackson's interpretation of VOA's mission.

"Voice of America is a publicly funded broadcaster with a clearly
defined charter," Shamble said. "You write news from the American
perspective. You're never going to have a huge audience. You're
not a commercial broadcaster."

Each of the eight writers affected staffs the midnight shift in
VOA's Washington office, and they would be transferred to other
jobs in the agency's Washington headquarters.

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

Although plans to move operations to the Hong Kong bureau were
announced in April, no definitive hiring decisions have yet to be
made. VOA hopes to have the new Hong Kong staff active within the
next few months.

----------



Copyright © 2005 Chicago Tribune