14 Senators Urge Jackson to Cancel Outsourcing Plan

Some of the Senate's top democrats have written to VOA director David Jackson to express concern about plans to replace staff news writers on the overnight shift with contract workers in Hong Kong.

In a letter obtained by AFGE Local 1812 and posted on their website, the senators term "troublesome" the message sent by the move, even though it only affects a handful of employees (who would be reassigned to other shifts).

Jackson and senior newsroom manger Ted Iliff have made unsubstantiated claims that the move would save around $300,000. The alleged savings could not possibly be anywhere near that amount. Existing overnight staff will be reassigned, not sacked, and the only out-of-pocket savings will be 10 percent shift differential — maybe $50,000 or less annually by my back-of-an-envelope calculation, or a bit more than the cost of flying the Board of Governors to Prague for their meeting there earlier this month.

In their letter to David Jackson, the senators say the small cost savings will be "vastly outweighed by the harm you will do to VOA's journalistic integrity."

They also find it "difficult to believe VOA will be able to satisfy its [Charter] mission of projecting 'significant American thought' through non-American cititizens" who "live half way around the world under an entirely different system of government."

Hong Kong, you may recall, is part — albeit a "special" part — of the People's Republic of China, whose government has shown rather little understanding of the role of a free press. On the other hand, neither current managers at VOA nor the Board that is supposed to insulate VOA from political interference, seems to get it either.

It is heartening that at least some lawmakers have finally discovered that they have an oversight role in U.S. international broadcasting. It's a shame that no Republican signed on to the letter. Poor quality journalism, of the sort that is increasingly evident on VOA's air, should not be a partisan issue.

So far there is no evidence that Jackson is backing down, and the expanded Hong Kong News Center under the well-connected Jennifer Janin should be turning out news copy within a month or so.

Signers of the June 9, 2005, letter to David Jackson

Paul S. Sarbanes (D-MD)
Marbara A. Mikulski (D-MD)
Russell D. Feingold (D-WI)
Patrick J. Leahy (D-VT)
Tom Harkin (D-IA)
John F. Kerry (D-MA)
Barack Obama (D-IL)
Edward M. Kennedy (D-MA)
Christopher J. Dodd (D-CT)
Richard J. Durbin (D-IL)
Charles E. Schumer (D-NY)
Tim Johnson (D-SD)
Barbara Boxer (D-CA)
Mary L. Landrieu (D-LA)