Is VOA liberal or conservative? American media on the one state and most important, on the Palestinian right of return. The next decade will qualify as interesting times
VOA has a very different ideological pedigree than other national radio shows like BBC World Service or Deutsche Welle. VOA was heavily ideological (distinct, unabashed propaganda) in its WWII inception and throughout Cold War days. Then followed a slow steady trend toward integrity in recent years, and the neoconservatives never really completed a VOA takeover. I don't listen to VOA often, but editorial continuity in ideology at VOA is as scizophrenic as are the parade of US leaders. The last time I listened in, VOA was heavily criticizing the neglect of PTSD treatment for returning war veterans, and criticizing the DOD for de-emphasizing/repressing soldier suicide data. Under the VOA umbrella, I think there are pockets of journalism, working hard to produce excellent and objective programming. http://www.youtube.com/user/urduvoanews I'm curious what you think of the objectivity in Urdu VOA coverage. I think those of us saying that today will be astounded at our understatement in 10 years.
Its essentially Pakistani news for, probably, Americans of Pakistani origin. I haven't monitored it since the news is extremely focused on the local perspective but it seems to be fairly objective in terms of the issues that are of concern to Pak expats. But perhaps a Pakistani could give a better assessment of how far that is correct.
You can take Carter as their spokesman on this issue. They're becoming increasingly impatient with Israel. Obama ran as a liberal and compared to McCain he certainly is one. But Congress is not ready to cut Israel loose--our most loyal, nuclear-armed ally in the Middle East. So he's walking a tightrope trying to appear liberal with his socialized medicine and all that crap, but he's not taking any strong liberal positions in international politics. The American Jewish community is becoming increasingly disenchanted with Israel. The old generation of Orthodox Zionist Jews are dying off, and the younger generation of secular assimilated Jews don't share their positions on the key issues. The old Orthodox Zionist Jews have a stranglehold on Israel's politics. I read a couple of days ago that they intend to change the Law of Return if they can get away with it. They want to deny citizenship to converts who were converted by Reform or Conservative rabbis, and only accept those who were converted by Orthodox rabbis. That's going to keep a lot of mixed couples from immigrating to Israel because--at least in America--most mixed marriages of a Jew to a convert are NOT Orthodox. Orthodox Jews simply don't outmarry! This will help the Orthodox rabbis keep too many non-Orthodox people from becoming citizens--and voting.