More firings at TV and Radio Marti over controversial George Soros report

[Judi Lynn]

By Nora Gámez Torres

March 01, 2019 02:26 PM,
Updated March 01, 2019 06:57 PM

Four additional staffers at Radio and TV Martí have been fired over a controversial report broadcast last year that referred to Jewish philanthropist George Soros as “anti-Semitic” — bringing to eight the number of dismissals at the station so far following a months-long internal investigation by the Office of Cuba Broadcasting (OCB), which oversees the Martí stations, as well as the Martínoticias digital site.

The report, aired by Isabel Cuervo for the Antena Live program, raises conspiracy theories about Soros, who is identified as a “left-wing billionaire of Hungarian-Jewish origin” and a “nonpracticing Jew of flexible morals.” The broadcast, which aired in three separate segments, included an interview that was posted on YouTube by RT.com that Cuervo used with no attribution to the source and another one passed off as her own interview with an alleged expert.

Cuervo and former News Editor Wilfredo Cancio were dismissed immediately after then Senator Jeff Flake and Senator Bob Menéndez demanded an investigation. The Martí report, broadcast last May, made headlines at the end of October when a blog on Cuban issues raised questions about the broadcast just days after Soros received a bomb threat.

John Lansing, director of the United States Agency for Global Media (USAGM), which oversees Radio and TV Martí, issued a statement Wednesday saying that the three-part report should have never aired.

More:
https://www.miamiherald.com/news/local/article226975224.html#storylink=cpy

Both Radio and TV Marti have been sucking up tens of millions of US taxpayers' hard earned dollars ANNUALLY since Ronald Reagan bequeathed them upon the Miami Cuban "exile" community to program, staff, and operate daily. When Democratic Congressmen like Rep. David Skaggs, of Colorado, attempted to remove these high-cost pork barrel projects thrown to the "exile" community to save US taxpayers a TON of money, Cuban "exile" politicians informed them they could expect to lose everything they held dear, and proceded to start campaigns against them in their home states, ending their career in politics. Looks as if the "exiles" will tell us when it's OK to stop paying for their expensive projects which benefit only them.

[Judi Lynn]

1. U.S.-funded broadcaster firing 8 reporters and editors over 'rogue' anti-Semitic reports disparaging

U.S.-funded broadcaster firing 8 reporters and editors over ‘rogue’ anti-Semitic reports disparaging George Soros

By Aaron C. Davis
February 27

A U.S. agency that broadcasts news and other programs into Cuba says it is seeking to fire a total of eight reporters, editors and anchors following an internal investigation into anti-Semitic segments last year that disparaged philanthropist and prominent Democratic donor George Soros.

The three-part broadcast described Soros, a naturalized American citizen, as a “nonpracticing Jew of flexible morals” and as a “left-wing billionaire of Hungarian-Jewish origin.” The report alleged that Soros was working to undermine sovereign governments across Central America, a claim that John F. Lansing, the chief executive of the broadcaster’s parent agency, said had no merit.

The reports were beamed into Cuba and spread to a Spanish-language audience online by Radio and Television Martí, a sister agency to the better-known Voice of America.
Although Trump administration appointees have cycled through the broadcasting operation as Soros has emerged as a leading boogeyman on the right, the objectionable segments were the result not of interference but of a breakdown in editorial controls at the Miami-based Martí, the investigation found.

. . .

Judicial Watch has rejected the criticism of its work and said it never spoke to any Martí reporter. The group frequently criticizes Soros and what it says is his “radical left-wing agenda” being subsidized by U.S. foreign aid.

More:
https://www.washingtonpost.com/investigations/us-funded-broadcaster-firing-8-reporters-and-editors-over-rogue-anti-semitic-reports-disparaging-george-soros/2019/02/27/72d711f2-3ad2-11e9-aaae-69364b2ed137_story.html?noredirect=on&utm_term=.171c5440d20c