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Congress calls for investigation into VOA for pro-Iran corruption

Oct 17, 2014 1:34 pm By Robert Spencer

VOAPersian“The lawmakers say that their Iranian-American constituents have been complaining about PNN’s failure to cover Iran’s human rights abuses and other matters that are potentially embarrassing to the ruling regime.” What a scandal, and a sign of the insanity of our times, that the Voice of America, which was founded to be a voice of freedom against totalitarianism and oppression, would now have been allowed to become a mouthpiece for the bloody Iranian mullahs. Not to have allowed this, of course, would have been “Islamophobic.”

“Congress Calls for Investigation into VOA for Pro-Iran Corruption,” by Adam Kredo, Washington Free Beacon, October 17, 2014:

Congress is calling for an investigation into Voice of America’s (VOA) Persian language news service as a result of what they say is the station’s systemic pro-Iran bias and cozy ties to the anti-American ruling regime, according to a letter sent recently to Secretary of State John Kerry.

Lawmakers and Iranian dissidents have long accused VOA’s Persian News Network (PNN) of producing sympathetic coverage of the Iranian regime and blacklisting prominent Iranian opposition voices from appearing on the air.

The call from Congress for an investigation into these alleged practices comes just a few months after the Washington Free Beacon revealed that PNN had banned from the network a prominent Iranian opposition member and placed him on a so-called “black list” after he attacked Iran’s ruling regime for sponsoring terrorism.

Nine House lawmakers from both sides of the aisle are now demanding that the State Department launch a formal investigation into potential mismanagement at PNN, according to a letter sent to Kerry on Wednesday and obtained by the Free Beacon.

“We request that you [Kerry] look into this matter and investigate any possible mismanagement and slanted coverage of news by VOA-PNN, including the oversight of management, staffing, and content,” the lawmakers wrote.

Those members concerned about PNN’s coverage include Reps. Steve Cohen (D., Tenn.), Dana Rohrabacher (R., Calif.), Steve Stockman (R., Texas), Trent Franks (R., Ariz.), Howard Coble (R., N.C.), and several others.

The lawmakers say that their Iranian-American constituents have been complaining about PNN’s failure to cover Iran’s human rights abuses and other matters that are potentially embarrassing to the ruling regime.

“We have received complaints from our Iranian-American constituents that VOA-PNN programs have neglected to adequately cover the abysmal situation of human rights violations in Iran, particularly the alarming and dramatic rise in executions,” they write in the letter.

“During [Iranian] President Hassan Rouhani’s first term in office, nearly 900 hangings have been ordered with very few of these executions receiving VOA-PNN coverage,” they say. “In our efforts to protect and give voice to vulnerable populations, we must ensure that VOA-PNN upholds its mission to provide truthful news and does not suppress the voices of those Iranians seeking human rights protections and Democratic change in their country.”

In addition to a significant rise in executions, including one scheduled for a female rape victim who spoke out against her attacker, Iran has continued its pursuit of nuclear weapons and support for terrorism in the Middle East….

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Filed Under: Iran, journalistic bias, United States, Useful idiots Tagged With: featured


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Comments

  1. KrazyKafir says

    Oct 17, 2014 at 1:44 pm

    Will the Obama administration charge these congressmen with treason?

  2. Walter Sieruk says

    Oct 17, 2014 at 2:37 pm

    Those cruel and tyrannical ayatollahs and mullahs who have so much power in this Islamic regime of Iran with their terrible oppression of the Iranian people, these Muslim clerics hold much power they may be described in the Bible. For the Bible in Psalm 73:6-9 reads “Therefore pride is their necklace; they clothe themselves with violence. From their callous hearts comes iniquity; the evil conceits of their minds know no limits. They scoff and speak with malice; in their arrogance they threaten oppression. Their mouths lay claim to heaven, and their tongues take possession of the earth.” [N.I.V]

    • Champ says

      Oct 17, 2014 at 7:40 pm

      Great comment, Walter ..yes, that verse describes them to a T!

  3. Beagle says

    Oct 17, 2014 at 3:18 pm

    Whenever I search a topic and Voice of America comes up as a source it appears to me that the entire mission of VOA has been turned upside down. VOA is just another mouthpiece for doctrinaire Left and anti-American opinion these days.

  4. boakai ngombu says

    Oct 17, 2014 at 5:13 pm

    under the present regime, how can there be a voice against totalitarianism and oppression? the VOA is muzzled.

  5. gravenimage says

    Oct 17, 2014 at 5:16 pm

    What a scandal, and a sign of the insanity of our times, that the Voice of America, which was founded to be a voice of freedom against totalitarianism and oppression, would now have been allowed to become a mouthpiece for the bloody Iranian mullahs.

    ………………………………………

    Appalling. I knew that VOA had rather less specific purpose since the fall of the Soviet Union, but I had assumed that it still in a general sense stood for freedom.

    More:

    Lawmakers and Iranian dissidents have long accused VOA’s Persian News Network (PNN) of producing sympathetic coverage of the Iranian regime and blacklisting prominent Iranian opposition voices from appearing on the air.
    ………………………………………

    This would be as if VOA’s Russian language service had been covering up the crimes of the Soviet Union.

    I know that there were Russians who risked a great deal to tune in to the Voice of America, and that friends would often gather around to hear news that they could not hear from censored state-sponsored Soviet media, or just to get a sense of what radio from a free country could sound like.

    That this is not serving the same purpose for any few freedom-minded Iranians just horrifies me.

    It would be better to shut VOA down entirely than to have it *shill for tyrants*. Good God.

  6. Don McKellar says

    Oct 17, 2014 at 6:39 pm

    When will the bell toll for Obama on this count? The pro-Islamic supremacist corruption count, that is? That is the question. When does that happen?

  7. Pam Stuhr says

    Oct 17, 2014 at 6:52 pm

    VOA….doesn’t that stand for Voicing Obama’s Agenda?

  8. Custos Custodum says

    Oct 17, 2014 at 7:24 pm

    The BBC World Service Persian and Arabic services have been “going native” since at least the 1980s.

    The larger picture is this: a small but PERSISTENT FORCE – in this case, a few Iranian front men armed with oil dollars aided by left-wing nihilists within BBC management and government agencies – can build up HUGE political power over time UNLESS OPPOSED by a countervailing ACTIVE FORCE. Mere passivity is NO DEFENSE.

    Put differently, a democracy not moving forward (e.g. against the Soviet Union) will fall prey to ACCELERATING SUBVERSION and influence-buying.

    • Custos Custodum says

      Oct 17, 2014 at 7:30 pm

      A similar form of subversion – documented on this site – is the take-over of Arabic, Persian, Pashto etc. TRANSLATION sections within the State Department, CIA, FBI etc. by Muslim activists and their left-wing allies.

      Copts and other Arabic-speaking Christians (who are obviously far less likely to have secret sympathies for the Muslim Brotherhood, Hamas, Hezb’Allah, etc.) are systematically sidelined or blackballed.

      (Similarly, the precise background of translators handling Chinese materials deserves much closer scrutiny, PRECISELY because of the likely leftist screams of “RACISM!”.)

      • CharlieGriffith says

        Oct 18, 2014 at 10:55 am

        Re:
        “(Similarly, the precise background of translators handling Chinese materials deserves much closer scrutiny, PRECISELY because of the likely leftist screams of “RACISM!”.)”

        This needs to be pointed out and emphasized over and over again.

        “(Similarly, the precise background of translators handling Chinese materials deserves much closer scrutiny, PRECISELY because of the likely leftist screams of “RACISM!”.)”

        We (speaking as an American] Amercans, at least) seem to be cowering at the least knee-jerk application of these ‘racism’, “prejudice’ and ‘bigotry’ terms which have been, and are now so very successfully being used against us by all of our many adversaries. Those terms are now so easily flung about. This is our contemporary ‘political correctness’.

        With our short attention spans, like right now, and our contemporary, like, ‘cool’ mentality now, more like, you know, attuned to 140-character-thinking we’ve forgotten, like, totally, the successes of the Red Guards in their destruction of irreplaceable antiquities by those adolescent zealots.

        We’ve forgotten, like totally, the famous General Claire Chennault and the Flying Tigers fighter aircraft tactics operating so successfully against the Japanese occupying China, we’ve forgotten the American tactical and strategic support from 1949 to this very day of the R.O.C. on Taiwan, we’ve forgotten, like totally, the “cell” technique of communism inside America since about the early 1930’s and especially during the Cold War.

        Jump now to, like, whoaaah, everybody……the 21st Century and we face muslims cells in the guise of madrassas and mosques popping up in a neighborhood near you, and you and you.

        But its “racism!”, “bigotry” and “prejudice” to mention Chinese cyber warfare against us today. Or anything at all Chinese. Or Muslim cyber warfare, or anything at all Muslim.

        See how easy it is to avoid reading History and now make instantly smothering, like a blanket, man, ‘cool” assertions?

        We today, like so totally, lack any sense of perspective and proportion. We need a collective, [gasp! that very word!] shaking by the collar to wise up to contemporary Chinese cyber warfare.

        That ain’t racism, man. That’s reality, man.

  9. Peter says

    Oct 18, 2014 at 11:14 am

    VOA = Views Obama Advocates

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