A Mission In Search Of Purpose

Michael Hedges January 7, 2013 Follow on Twitter

Like the weather, everybody talks about change. Media organizations are particularly susceptible to the idea. It makes for great meetings. After that, reality is very stormy.

Ending several weeks of conflicting reports, Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (RFE/RL) President and CEO Steven Korn tendered his resignation. He cited “solely personal reasons” in a farewell letter published on the RFE/RL website (December 31). Mr. Korn joined RFE/RL in June 2011 and his resignation is effective January 25th.

Accepting the resignation the Broadcasting Board of Governors (BBG), the US agency overseeing government international broadcasting, said “interim leadership will be announced shortly” and a search committee had been formed. Mr. Korn’s position became tenuous after a large number of Moscow staff were terminated in September and a new director at Russian service Radio Liberty, known in Russia as Radio Svoboda, was appointed. BBG Governor Victor Ashe, US Ambassador to Poland during the administration of President George W. Bush, reportedly called for Korn’s head in the November board meeting.

Radio Liberty’s presence in Russia was born of the Cold War with shortwave broadcasts rallying opponents of communism. With Glasnost the channel was allowed transmitters inside Russia and a network was built. RFE/RL’s 28 language services are, by mandate, “surrogate broadcasters” providing “uncensored news and information… to countries where a free press is either banned by the government or not fully established.”

The channel’s continued presence in Russia under President and/or Prime Minister Vladmir Putin became one of many diplomatic issues between the United States and Russia. And Mr. Putin has been holding all the cards. Network operators were persuaded to drop Radio Liberty programming. Then laws were passed first requiring employees to register as agents of a foreign government then prohibiting foreign entities from owning broadcast stations. The license for Radio Liberty’s last 20 kW medium wave transmitter located in near Moscow was finally revoked in November.

Quite obviously, the climate in Moscow had drifted like the bitter Siberian snow and Radio Liberty needed a measurable act of bravery. Appointing well-known Russian dissident Masha Gessen as director after the entire Moscow online staff and half the broadcast journalists was part of a plan to reinvigorate Radio Liberty as a web-based service. Change agents, like Mr. Korn, often run afoul of other agendas.

“To be frank, when I arrived I found a degree of institutional inertia and insular self-satisfaction that I thought could be harmful to the future of the company,” he wrote in a open letter posted on the RFE/RL website (December 31). “The company had become too comfortable with its past successes and current methods.”

Because of its specific mandate and long history, RFE/RL employs journalists and editors, some full-time and many free-lancers, with experience in and orientation toward opposition politics, some working in-country and most from the Prague headquarters.  The 21 various services offer strong investigative journalism with a point of view. Working as a consultant prior to appointment as Radio Liberty Moscow director, Masha Gessen reportedly indicated a shift in tone was needed for the station to remain competitive; more soft features and less bitter opposition. There was resistance, leading to the firings. As the storm in Washington brewed early in December Ms Gessen told Russian media that Mr. Korn would be returning after the holidays.

“It is all too painfully known to everyone involved with US international broadcasting that the organization suffers from structural dysfunction that has a significantly negative impact on the entire agency,” he continued. “There is constant internecine warfare over issues large and small. There are indeed serious battles to be fought. If, however, we spend all of our time fighting among ourselves over petty issues, then our real adversaries and competitors will waltz to victory in the information war.”

As is well understood in management circles, “the fish rots from the head down.” The BBG was rated worst of mid-sized US government agencies in 2012 by a Deloitte survey, reported by GovExec.com (December 13). BBG Chairman Walter Isaacson – ex-CNN, like Steve Korn – resigned in February 2012, just short of two years and after publishing a well-regarded biography of Apple’s Steve Jobs. US President Barack Obama tapped NBCUniversal International president Jeffrey Shell as the next BBG chairman in September but Senate confirmation is waiting.

The BBG has nine Governors; four Democrats, four Republicans and the Secretary of State as ex-officio. Without a chairman, the BBG is governed, essentially, by neo-conservative (neo-con) Republicans still looking for WMD in various countries and fighting the Cold War. US neo-con media and think tanks criticized the recent Radio Liberty saga in detail and with apoplectic vigor. BBG Executive Director Jeffery Trimble, in charge of the agency’s day-to-day operations, is leading a six-month evaluation of the Russian service.

Russian media has given scant attention to the Radio Liberty story, mostly for putting dissident journalists out of work. Several of those fired, including war correspondent Andrei Babitsky, quickly set up an alternative website. Following last winter’s protests and the Pussy Riot trials, noted the New York Times in a lengthy report (January 6) Russians are fatigued by dissidents and opposition, more interested in new iPhones.

Several years ago the BBG hired an experienced commercial broadcaster to invigorate Arabic language services. DJs were hired and pop music played under the revolutionary notion that audience size mattered if any message could break through. The project collapsed as politicians dismissed the concept.

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