Beijing makes its voice heard: CCTV expands in the U.S.

The FT today reports on the continuing expansion of China’s CCTV in the United States. “China has started to serve US citizens its own side of the story with CCTV America,” writes the FT’s reporter.

CCTV America, from its studio in Washington, D.C., is part of Beijing’s outreach of telling its own story through its own voice. The expansion has been dramatic and expensive. They are covering stories of Chinese interest that are not covered by Western media or not covered in a way the Chinese want. Such is the purpose and advantage of Government International Broadcasting.

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“An inch closer feels like a good mile” – Foreign Relations moves on Tara’s nomination

Today’s business meeting of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee includes Tara Sonenshine, nominee for Under Secretary of State for Public Diplomacy (and Public Affairs). While perfunctory and the time spent on Tara and her cohort will be measured in single-digit minutes (all the real work is done before the business meeting), it is a major move toward confirmation.

Indeed, by the time you read this, Tara’s nomination was already referred to the floor. Next up: confirmation by the Senate.

How long will the Senate take confirm Tara? No one knows. The Senate has all but come to a halt on nominations, allowing only a few through. One insider labeled the GOP hold on nominations as the “How-Dare-the-President-Make-SoCalled-Recess-Appointments Hold.”

The State Department, in a show of its confidence in the Senate last week, named Amb. Kathleenn Stephens as Acting Under Secretary. Amb. Stephens, by the way, is a good choice, a Foreign Service Officer with the rank of Career Minister, whose service as U/S will undoubtedly be impacted by the unknown of how long she will serve, an unfortunate and common reality of this particular job. Place your bets: Will she serve until the election, or beyond, or until the end of the month?

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BBG’s 5yr Strategic Plan: to inform, engage and connect (Updated)

The Broadcasting Board of Governor’s strategic plan for 2012-2016 provides a serious starting point to discuss and debate the future of America’s international broadcasting. Download the Executive Summary for the BBG’s FY2013 Budget Request and the BBG Strategic Plan 2012-2016 (OMB-Final) from MountainRunner.

More to appear on this site about the plan. Feel free to leave comments below or via email.

Update: the link to the plan was fixed. Such are the challenges of posting on the road (or train or conference room) from an iPad.

To Inform, Engage, and Connect: a look at the BBG’s new strategy

The Broadcasting Board of Governors released their strategy supporting their 2013 budget request today. The plan is far ranging and addresses many of the major challenges facing America’s international broadcasting today directly and several more indirectly. As good as the plan reads, the devil, as they say, is in the details.

The BBG’s narrative on this plan, released earlier, created unnecessary confusion with its lack of details. The specifics, some described as tactical but still strategic in scope and time to implement, are welcome and necessary to foster an informed discussion on correcting the mission and capability of U.S. International Broadcasting. For too long, the BBG has been effectively silent, or reticent at best, on its plans, to its own detriment.
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Michael Lynton Becomes the BBG’s New Interim Presiding Governor

Just in from the Broadcasting Board of Governors:

Washington, DC – Following the departure of Chairman Walter Isaacson, the Broadcasting Board of Governors today unanimously approved BBG member Michael Lynton as its new interim presiding governor.

“It is a pleasure to work with this multi-talented, bipartisan board, and an honor to be elected to help lead the organization,” Lynton said. “We are each committed to the cause of making this agency the best it can be. And with our various strengths and diverse backgrounds, we all bring something to the table.”
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Where do we go from here? The troubled future of the BBG

The sudden resignation of Walter Isaacson as Chairman of the Broadcasting Board of Governors will further paralyze an already dysfunctional organization in desperate need of restructuring to move beyond yesterday and meet the requirements of today and tomorrow. This comes at a critical time when the BBG is attempting to complete and gain support for a new strategic plan. Continue reading “Where do we go from here? The troubled future of the BBG” »

MountainRunner will be in Boston later this week

I’ll be in Boston starting tomorrow for a few days to be on a panel at an interesting conference entitled “Neuroscience and Social Conflict“. In what is a working meeting, it is the kick-off event for a multi-year initiative by the Project on Justice in Times of Transition. It is a closed door event, so don’t expect live tweeting or a blog post from me.

The Art of the Bio: Jobs is there, but another job isn’t

We all forget to put things on our resume. Before, and indeed after, Walter Isaacson published his bestselling book Steve Jobs, Walter had worked another gig. He was Chairman of the Broadcasting Board of Governors, the U.S. Government agency that runs America’s non-military broadcasting, at least until he suddenly resigned before the end of his term, to the surprise of many, write another book.

But interestingly, an email from Walter’s prep school fails to mention his time at the BBG. Walter’s time at Time and CNN and his books are of course there, but no BBG.

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U.S. planning to reduce the size of the Embassy Baghdad

A vestige of the “anti-public diplomacy” of the previous decade is likely to get trimmed. The U.S. Embassy in Baghdad, a giant of a compound that dwarfs in physical size and the number of people of any other diplomatic post, U.S. or otherwise, is likely to shrink. According to The New York Times, the compound costs $6 billion annually. (Seriously?)

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