Tag: Voice of America

Voice of America at 80 – Howard Fast OWI Personnel Record Card
Cold War, History, International Broadcasting, OWI, VOA, VOA80

Voice of America at 80 – VOA’s Pro-Soviet Fellow Travelers and Lessons for Today

Voice of America at 80 – the hidden record of VOA’s pro-Soviet fellow travelers, Howard Fast and John Houseman, offers lessons for today Commentary By Ted Lipien The Voice of America (VOA), the U.S. taxpayer-funded international broadcaster with a budget of $252 million (FY20) in the federal U.S. Agency for Global Media (USAGM), plans to observe in February its 80th…

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Voice of America (VOA) Latin American Division Spanish Service graphic posted as VOA Spanish Facebook page cover image following the death in 2016 of Cuban communist leader Fidel Castro. The Voice of America is part of the $800-million (average annual budget) federal U.S. Agency for Global Media (USAGM).
Cold War, Glos Ameryki, Highlights, History, International Broadcasting, Poland, Russia, VOA, VOA80

Symbolic Justice for Stalin’s Victims, But Not Yet From Voice of America Management

Commentaries about Stalin’s victims, Voice of America By Ted Lipien (Tadeusz Lipień) In my Washington Examiner Christmas Day op-ed, and in my post about Polish artist, writer, and witness of genocide Józef Czapski, I write about Stalin’s victims and the Voice of America (VOA) in the U.S. Agency for Global Media (USAGM). I am an East European refugee from communism.…

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Józef Czapski in 1942
Cold War, Glos Ameryki, History, International Broadcasting, Poland, Russia, VOA, VOA80

Censored by Voice of America in 1950, re-interviewed in the 1980s, Józef Czapski gets a plaque in Prague

Censored by Voice of America in 1950, re-interviewed in the 1980s, Józef Czapski gets a plaque in Prague By Ted Lipien On December 21, 2021, a plaque at Józef Czapski’s birthplace in Prague, the Czech Republic, was unveiled in a ceremony attended by ambassadors from Poland, the Holy See, Lithuania, and Estonia. The Embassy of Italy, which now occupies the…

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Józef i Maria Czapscy w mojej bibliotece Tadeusz Lipień grudzień 2021.
Cold War, Featured, Highlights, Poland, Russia, VOA, VOA80

Głód prawdy – walka Józefa i Marii Czapskich z propagandą Kremla

Zapowiedź nowej książki polsko-amerykańskiego dziennikarza Tadeusza Lipienia: Głód prawdy — walka Józefa i Marii Czapskich z propagandą Kremla. Słowo wstępne Głód prawdy analizuje wkład dwóch wybitnych postaci polskiej emigracji politycznej drugiej połowy XX wieku do walki z cenzurą i indoktrynacją w krajach za żelazną kurtyną i z propagandą komunistyczną na Zachodzie. Józef Czapski i Maria Czapska — brat i siostra…

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Segment of The Voice of America QSL card circa 1949.
China, Cold War, Glos Ameryki, International Broadcasting, OWI, Poland, RFE, RL, Russia, VOA, VOA80

Biden can combat foreign propaganda by reforming Voice of America

OPINION My op-ed in The Washington Examiner was written in response to recent media reports suggesting that leaders who have been long in charge of both the Voice of America (VOA) and the U.S. Agency for Global Media (USAGM) are responsible for a management culture which allows major abuses of journalistic practices and the VOA Charter to occur, such as…

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Cold War, Featured, Glos Ameryki, History, Radio, VOA, VOA80, Women

Discrimination of Refugee Broadcasters by Voice of America Management Has Been Hidden for Decades

Treated for decades as second-class citizens and denied direct access to wire services by native-born, mostly white, mostly left-leaning, and mostly male Voice of America (VOA) managers and reporters, these VOA immigrant broadcasters, some of them outstanding women journalists who spent time in communist prisons, did their best to win the propaganda war with the Soviet Union and its satellite…

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Featured, History, VOA

Stalin Prize-Winning Chief Writer of Voice of America News

Cold War Radio Museum

The News Bureau room of the Office of War Information (OWI), November 1942, at about the same time Howard Fast started writing Voice of America newscasts. The photograph’s official caption said: “It is arranged much the same way as the city room of a daily newspaper. Here, war news of the world is disseminated. In the foreground, are editors’ desks handling such special services as trade press, women’s activities, and campaigns. The news desk is in the background.” Smith, Roger, photographer. Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division Washington, D.C. 20540.

VOA logo, 2019.
Yankee Doodle Voice of America (VOA) signature tune reportedly proposed by VOA chief news writer (1942-1943) Howard Fast who later received the 1953 Stalin International Peace Prize.

 “I established contact at the Soviet embassy with people who spoke English and were willing to feed me important bits and pieces from their side of the wire. I had long ago, somewhat facetiously, suggested ‘Yankee Doodle’ as our musical signal, and now that silly little jingle was a power cue, a note of hope everywhere on earth…”[ref]Howard Fast, Being Red (Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company, 1990), 18-19.[/ref]

Howard Fast, 1953 Stalin Peace Prize winner, best-selling author, journalist, former Communist Party member and reporter for its newspaper The Daily Worker, decribing his role as the chief writer of Voice of America (VOA) radio news translated into multiple languages and rebroadcast for four hours daily to Europe through medium wave transmitters leased from the BBC in 1942-1943. Howard Fast, Being Red (Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company, 1990), pp. 18-19.
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Cold War, Glos Ameryki, History, International Broadcasting, Photos, Poland, Public Diplomacy, Religion, VOA

MSZANA DOLNA NA 150-TĄ ROCZNICĘ NIEPODLEGŁOŚCI STANÓW ZJEDNOCZONYCH

Tadeusz Lipień 4-go lipca Ameryka obchodziła Dzień Niepodległości. Podczas wizyty w Polsce 6-go lipca, prezydent Donald Trump dołączy do wielu innych amerykańskich przywódców, którzy w przeszłości potwierdzali znaczenie sojuszu polsko-amerykańskiego i przyjaźni między Stanami Zjednoczonymi a Polską. Ten szkic ma na celu przypomnienie jak mieszkańcy międzywojennej Rzeczypospolitej obchodzili w 1926 r. w wyjątkowy sposób 150-tą rocznicę podpisania amerykańskiej Deklaracji Niepodległości.…

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Glos Ameryki, History, Photos, Poland, Public Diplomacy, Religion, VOA

History’s Greatest Fourth of July Birthday Card: A Personal Story of Polish-American Friendship

By Ted Lipien Today, July 4, 2017, America celebrates its Independence Day. During his upcoming visit to Poland on July 6, President Donald Trump will be among a long line of American leaders reaffirming the importance of the Polish-American alliance and friendship. This article is about a unique way in which the citizens of the interwar Polish Republic marked in…

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History, Poland, Russia

U.S. Responses to WWII Soviet Propaganda Against Poland

U.S. Responses to WWII Soviet Propaganda Against Poland — Lessons for Confronting Putin’s Propaganda By Ted Lipien Aggressive propaganda in support of territorial claims against other, almost always smaller and weaker nations, has been a constant feature in Soviet history. There are many similarities between Soviet propaganda and propaganda currently employed by the Kremlin against Ukraine and the West. Soviet…

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Cold War, Glos Ameryki, History, International Broadcasting, Poland, Public Diplomacy, Russia, VOA

1944 Warsaw Uprising Betrayed by Pro-Stalin WWII Voice of America

August 1, 2015 marked the 71 anniversary of the start of the Warsaw Uprising, a 63-day unsuccessful operation by the Polish resistance Home Army (Polish: Armia Krajowa) to liberate Warsaw from Nazi Germany. About 16,000 Polish fighters were killed and between 150,000 and 200,000 Polish civilians died, mostly from mass executions. After the Home Army capitulation in Warsaw, the Germans…

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Audio, Glos Ameryki, History, Photos, Poland, Public Diplomacy, Radio, Russia, VOA

WWII Voice of America aired Stalin propaganda to cover up his role in Katyn massacre

WWII Voice of America aired Stalin propaganda to cover up his role in Katyn massacre From deliberate pro-Stalin WWII propaganda to careless “pro-Putin bias” — Avoiding propaganda pitfalls at Voice of America By Ted Lipien Official documents declassified and released by the National Archives since 2012 show that during World War II and for years afterwards, the U.S. Government-run Voice…

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Cold War, Glos Ameryki, Poland, Video, VOA

Jerzy Popiełuszko – Vice President George H.W. Bush Visits Slain Priest’s Grave, Poland 1987

During his visit to Poland in September 1987, U.S. Vice President George H.W. Bush took part in a wreath-laying ceremony for Father Jerzy Popieluszko at the St. Stanislaw Kostka Church in Warsaw (September 28, 1987). Voice of America VOA Polish Service director Tadeusz (Ted) Lipien reported on the visit from Warsaw.

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Cold War, Glos Ameryki, History, Media, Poland, Video, VOA

Tomlinson on Voice of America coverage of Pope John Paul II

Former Voice of America (VOA) director and former Broadcasting Board of Governors (BBG) Chairman Ken Tomlinson, who died in 2014, told the Voice of America in 2012 that his most memorable moment at VOA was when he visited the Polish Service and helped to arrange extensive news coverage of Pope John Paul II’s visit to Poland when the country was…

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