"...[T]hey broadcast from...a world that no longer exists. I view these stations, Voice of America and Radio Liberty, as spam on our airwaves." That's what our good, good friends the Russians say, or at least it's what the .gov.ru official who turned down VOA's routine request to renew their contract to broadcast via transmitters inside Russia said.
RIA Novosti general director Dmitry Kiselyov sent a one-sentence refusal but has since has plenty to say to Russian media outlets, dismissing charges that he's suppressing dissenting voices, "This does not have anything to do with freedom of speech because Voice of America and Radio Liberty do not talk about anything original."
Ah, it's voices-from-the-ash-heap-of history time again is it? VOA -- like other shortwave broadcasters -- has been steadily shutting down transmitting facilities (with the possible exception of Greenville B),* but -- again, like other traditionally shortwave services -- maintains considerable web and satellite presence. While they're no longer on boomboxes in Russia, VOA is still pumping out signals to all the world, for anyone who cares to listen.
Spam? Better check the supermarket shelves, Dimitry: that stuff still sells.
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* The big Crosley-built site in Bethany, Ohio is long gone except for the building. Dixon, California is shut down, as are Delano in CA and Greenville A in North Carolina.
BUILDING A 1:1 BALUN
4 years ago
5 comments:
Given the cosmography of cyberspace it is perhaps ironic for a Russian to speak negatively about spam.
Kishnevi
Zing!
Sigh! The problem with this new/old Cold War is that the Rooskies are acting like a bunch of Teen-Age Punks in Middle School.
Stalin would have taken over the Ukraine and been working on the Baltics weeks ago.
Amateurs.
Q: How does the tiger eat the elephant?
A: One bite at a time.
I'm sure our administration feels the same as the Russians when it comes to talk radio, pretty much the only place a dissenting opinion is heard.
"This does not have anything to do with freedom of speech because Voice of America and Radio Liberty do not talk about anything original."
I missed that important caveat in Constitutional Law.
So speech has to be original to be protected?
Dang. Every rebuttal, then, is not original, and by this, not protected.
And many in our government are thinking "Dang! I wish I'd thought of that."
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