Unlike CNN, Foxnews etc, which are biased either towards the left or the right. Voice of America, has been one of the most reliable and unbiased news sources around the globe. It has huge popularity in many countries, especially in dictatorship countries like China, Russia and the Middle East.
It’s odd to me that, most Americans complain about their news being biased, like CNN is propaganda of the left, Foxnews being the right etc and not trustworthy, then why aren’t more people reading the voice of America, as it is proven to be much more reliable than the mainstream medias?
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It is a U.S. government-owned and funded broadcasting service. Its intended audience is not Americans, but people in other countries. It is not something that is readily available in the U.S. Yes you can go on its website online but if you’re watching TV (most people still do) then you’re going to struggle to find it there, whereas CNN, MSNBC and Fox are all pretty easy to get to.
I get most of news from NPR on my car radio.
I think I’ve heard it on the radio once. Iirc it is owned by the government and specifically meant to target people outside of the usa.
Beyond that… I never seen a TV channel for it, so not sure how I would consume it if I don’t listen to the radio.
I think NPR is the go to here for unbiased news.
VOA is legally not allowed to broadcast here because it’s propaganda. Propaganda not in a disparaging sense, just in a “inform and entertain people to make the case for a point of view” sense- that POV being pro-America/markets/democracy/and somewhat American military.
Edit: I wasn’t paying attention, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Defense_Authorization_Act_for_Fiscal_Year_2013#Smith%E2%80%93Mundt_Modernization_Act_of_2012 makes it legal.
VOA is the US propaganda news. It’s only function is to make the US look like it is functional when it is not. It was created by the US government, is funded by them, and is not truly unbiased. In the law that created it, the first section is literally ” The long-range interests of the United States are served by communicating directly with the peoples of the world by radio. ” Radio being how news got out quickly in 1942 when VOA was created, tells you all you really need to know about it. Up until 2013 it was classified as Propaganda and was not able to be aired in the US. Most US citizens don’t even know what it is.
It’s US government propaganda. It’s just as biased as Fox or NPR
>Voice of America, has been one of the most reliable and unbiased news sources around the globe.
In a way because we have NPR. Voice of America and NPR are redundant of each other but NPR gets an edge because their non-news content are interesting.
I watch the PBS NewsHour.
> It’s odd to me that, most Americans complain about their news being biased
Americans love biased and sensationalized news, or whatever feeds their predetermined views. The actions speak for themselves; there’s a reason why certain outlets are so popular. If people wanted neutral news they can fire up Reuters.
In any event I have a hard time imagining that VOA is totally neutral and objective without an agenda.
I’ve listened to VOA when we were overseas and I can’t remember how I was able to do that. The announcer spoke in very slow English as in ‘say a phrase, wait about ten seconds, say another phrase’…because English was not the first language of most of the listeners. Interesting experience. It just happened a couple of times.
>Voice of America, has been one of the most reliable and unbiased news sources around the globe.
Ah yes, literal state propaganda is famous for being both reliable and unbiased.
I’m embarrassed to admit that I hadn’t heard of it until I read your question.
VOA is wildly biased and questionably ‘good’. It’s literally the closest thing the U.S. has to state-run propaganda, because it pretty much *is*. Personally I’ve never understood why we run it from a ‘national character’ POV, and it annoys the hell out of me that we ‘have’ to run it from a diplomatic POV.
It’s absolutely not good.
I think most Americans probably haven’t even heard of it, considering it was apparently illegal to broadcast it here until a decade ago. Even if it was well-known, most Americans would probably prefer independent media rather than state-run news.
The Associated Press is well-known for being pretty unbiased though. NPR is also mostly pretty unbiased as far as their news reporting goes (it receives only a tiny portion of its money from the government, so it’s actually editorially independent)
Most people have never heard of it.
Are you asking why we don’t consume government funded propaganda not intended for a US audience?
Personally, I use the Associated Press.
Because it’s not targeted at us and I’m pretty sure it counted as propaganda and was illegal to broadcast here until the mid 2010s.
>It’s odd to me that, most Americans complain about their news being biased
For a long time, US journalism strived for neutrality. The idea of a journalist as an objective and neutral reporter of events is still taught in journalism schools. Historically people were taught to trust the media as an impartial record of events.
Being considered biased is traditionally a huge flaw in American journalism. The idea of news sources being biased to specific ideologies is still pretty new to modern American.
For example, FOX News, seen pretty much universally as the news of the right in the US, for a very long time used as its slogan “Fair and Balanced”, trying to claim they were impartial.
There’s no such thing as unbiased. Everyone has a bias.
This is why critical thinking is important.
I’ve never ever heard of this, and I’ve lived overseas multiple times. I’m kind of shocked lol. But I wouldn’t touch any state-run media with a ten foot pole, even my own country’s.
Been at my dad’s all week, which means I have watched a lot of 24/7 news this week without being exposed to it for years.
CNN isn’t biased, other than leaning towards reality.
Fox blatantly lies constantly. They used to just lean right. It’s pretty crazy and I hope they get sued out of existence.
MSNBC used to lean left now they’re vocally “these MAGA people are crazy, how can you not see it?” constantly. Which I can’t really blame them for.
Fox has moved the middle far to the right and has normalized insanity.
I have never heard of Voice of America. My guess is the average American isn’t aware of it either.
Never even heard of it
Literally never heard of it and I like to think that I am well traveled and well informed. My go to is NPR but thanks for the recommendation.
Because until 2013, it was *illegal* for VoA to broadcast in the United States. I’d say that most Americans have never even heard of it.
Isn’t that an actual, literal propaganda outlet? It doesn’t get aired here AFAIK.
Isn’t that news source owned by some religious group or did I get it confused with CBN?
I never heard of it until I lived in Germany when I was stationed there. I lived near the Lampertheim transmission towers, and I learned about Voice of America when I asked my neighbor what those towers were for.