OLEARY@TAMGEOP.bitnet (02/22/90)
>Date: Thu, 22 Feb 90 17:04:08 GMT >Reply-To: "K. Sankara Rao" <ksrao@power.eee.ndsu.nodak.edu> K. Sankara Roo writes: > I do find VOA news not to be 'propagandish' at all. Their news >broadcast is much less of a 'propaganda' as our domestic network TV news is >and is much more complete. True they devote more time to US news than does BBC. >Radio New Zeland news seems to be fairly regional and short (5 minutes, at >least those that I hear in the night during cricket broadcast). > > Even though I like BBC World Service News programs, I have one very >strong criticism of it. If I am a Britisher livung abroad, most of the time >there is british news at all. I know that there 'news about Britain' but it not >on the hour. In that respect RCI and VOA do serve their citizens abroad in >addition to the rest of the world. > > VOA devotes more of its programming time, this I am recalling the >time when I was in India, to American subjects, like Jazz, Press Club >rebroadcast etc, than does BBC. If that is propaganda, I am all for it. Its >news is not slanted as RM's was and not even as our TV network news is > > >K. Sankara Rao ksrao@power.eee.ndsu.nodak.edu My biggest complaint about VOA when I was in Africa was the complete absence of American sports coverage. BBC at least provides its nationals the cricket and football results but VOA never mentions baseball/football, save perhaps mentioning who won the World Series (not the individual games but the entire series) or who won the Super Bowl. I felt BBC did a better job conveying Britain culturally than did VOA (then again most of what I heard was the African service....maybe this matters). Before someone suggests that I should've been tuned into AFRTS I will mention that there aren't any US military establishments in Central Africa and that receiving the other signals was by no means an easy proposition (I didn't exactly have primo equipment available to me in Peace Corps). Dick O'Leary Dept. of Geophysics Texas A&M University College Station, TX 77843 USA