Radio Marti: “Hecka of a Job, Kenny”

RADIO MARTI: "HECKA OF A JOB, KENNY"
[SOURCE: Center for American Progress 9/21, AUTHOR: Eric Alterman]
[Commentary] The revelation that "at least" ten Florida journalists received money from the U.S. government to participate in programs broadcast on the federally-funded Radio and TV Martí feels like 2004 and 2005 all over again. Back in those days, stories of journalists secretly collecting checks signed by the Bush administration were coming fast and furious. The radio and television programs broadcast by Marti are beamed into Cuba with the aim of subverting the Castro regime. They are run by the Broadcasting Board of Governors, the federal office that runs the U.S. government's overseas television and radio stations. The BBG in turn is headed by none other than Kenneth Tomlinson, the right-wing Bush appointee who tried to recast the editorial content of the Public Broadcasting Service and Voice of America in the Bush administration’s own conservative image. The latest Marti scandal joins a rich and well-funded heritage of commentators, journalists, talking heads, and think tank wonks who have proven themselves to be not only “in the tank” as so many journalists are, but also “on the take.” The use of taxpayer dollars to subvert honest American journalism, while deplorable, seems hardly necessary. After all, Fox News, The Wall Street Journal’s editorial page, The Weekly Standard, and Rush Limbaugh already broadcast anything and everything the Administration claims to be true, no matter how outlandish. The traditional bulwarks against this kind of thing have been weakened almost beyond recognition, as the work of, say, The New York Times’ Judy Miller or The Washington Post’s Bob Woodward quite neatly illustrates. So why go to all this trouble to bribe journalists when so many are willing to work for free? Well, no one ever argued that competence was this administration’s strong suit.
http://www.americanprogress.org/site/pp.asp?c=biJRJ8OVF&b=2074455