U.S. officials have paid nationally known journalists to come on Voice of America radio for years El Nuevo Herald reports in a story published today

Posted on Thu, Sep. 14, 2006

MEDIA
Report: U.S. paid many other journalists
U.S. officials have paid nationally known journalists to come on Voice
of America radio for years, El Nuevo Herald reports in a story published
today.
BY CASEY WOODS
cwoods@MiamiHerald.com

Nationally and internationally known journalists for English-language
newspapers and magazines have ''for many, many years'' received payment
from the U.S. government to appear on Voice of America radio programs,
El Nuevo Herald reports in today's edition.

Among them have been a nationally syndicated columnist, a former opinion
page director for The Washington Times and the Washington bureau chief
for the Hartford Courant of Connecticut.

The El Nuevo Herald article followed a Miami Herald article published
Friday that disclosed that at least 10 South Florida journalists,
including three from El Nuevo Herald, have been regularly paid by the
U.S. government to participate in programs on Radio and TV Martí.

Spokesmen for the Broadcasting Board of Governors, the federal entity
that oversees the federal government's television and radio stations,
told El Nuevo Herald that such payments did not pose a conflict of interest.

''For decades, for many, many years, some of the most respectable
journalists in the country have received payments to participate in
programs of the Voice of America,'' one of the spokesmen, Larry Hart,
told El Nuevo Herald.

Radio and TV Martí were created by the U.S. government to promote
U.S.-style democracy in Cuba by bringing news, entertainment and
information meant to help undermine the communist government of Fidel
Castro.

Since 2001, El Nuevo Herald staff reporter Pablo Alfonso, who wrote an
opinion column and covered Cuba, was paid almost $175,000 to host
programs on Radio and TV Martí. In the same period, staff writer
Wilfredo Cancio, who covered the Cuban exile community and politics,
received almost $15,000.

Olga Connor, an El Nuevo Herald freelance reporter who wrote about Cuban
culture, received about $71,000.

Both Alfonso and Cancio were dismissed, and Connor's relationship with
The Miami Herald was terminated.

ON THE DEFENSE

In today's El Nuevo Herald article, written by reporters Gerardo Reyes
and Joaquim Utset, several national journalists defended taking payments
from the government for hosting or taking part in Voice of America shows.

''I do not cover the State Department or the Pentagon or any
governmental agency,'' David Lightman, the Hartford Courant's Washington
bureau chief, told El Nuevo Herald. ``Second, they pay me very little,
and they pay me because I am a professional and they remunerate me for
my time. In general, I do not cover the topics we're talking about.''

Lightman said he occasionally participates in the Voice of America
program Issues in the News.

Other journalists who acknowledged payments from Voice of America
programs included Tom M. DeFrank, head of the New York Daily News'
Washington office; Helle Dale, a former director of the opinion pages of
The Washington Times; and Georgie Anne Geyer, a nationally syndicated
columnist who appears in 120 publications, El Nuevo Herald reported.

Miami Herald executive editor Tom Fiedler said in a separate interview
that accepting such payments violates widely accepted standards of
journalistic ethics.

`NOT COMMON PRACTICE'

''Even though other journalists may have accepted payments from other
government agencies such as the Voice of America, it is certainly not
common practice nor accepted as proper among most journalists,'' Fiedler
said.

``I was surprised at the Hartford Courant's Washington bureau chief
because he is clearly in the position to assign reporters to cover
stories about Washington, to cover the very government he is taking
payments from.

''That is exactly why this practice is frowned upon by the great
majority of journalists and journalism ethicists,'' Fiedler said.

http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/news/breaking_news/15513470.htm