Radio and TV Martí: Jammed in Cuba, Slammed by the U.S. Court of Appeals (but still operating)

[Mika]

Radio and TV Martí: Jammed in Cuba, Slammed by the U.S. Court of Appeals

{snips} (bold = mine)

Last week, when the U.S. Court of Appeals affirmed a finding against the Broadcasting Board of Governors (BBG), the agency operating Radio and TV Martí, that it fired 16 employees in bad faith, its decision reopened the question of just how much waste taxpayers and policy makers will tolerate in the failed effort to overthrow Cuba's government.

Waste has plagued the Radio and TV Martí programs since they were created in 1983 to provide "accurate, unbiased" news and entertainment programming to the Cuban people. Unsurprisingly, the Cuban government thought little of the station's "regime change" fare and jammed the signal from the get-go. But, this didn't daunt the hardliners at the Office of Cuba Broadcasting.

After failing to overcome Cuba's disruption of the signal by floating a blimp over the island, they moved to transmitting its content from airborne platforms flying under the banner of Aero Martí. Writing for Foreign Policy last year, John Hudson said of the multi-million dollar annual effort to beam the programming around Cuba's jammers to reach the intended audience, "It's difficult to find a more wasteful government program."
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At minimum that means stopping its wasteful pursuit of legal redress, and giving back to its wrongfully fired employees the jobs, pay, and benefits they are owed. It would be better if Congress silenced the stations once and for all.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/sarah-stephens/radio-and-tv-marti-jammed_b_5360509.html

[Judi Lynn]

1. Radio/TV Marti: U.S.'s budget black hole. It just keeps growing, and does absolutely nothing.

It does bankroll the "lifestyle" of the Cuban Americans who control the programming, content, lobbying, and personnel even though it does nothing at all for anyone else, especially nothing for the US citizen taxpayers.

It's a political thang we support financially every freaking year, at a great cost.

[Mika]

2. I should've been on the anti Cuba side. Hell, I would've been able to retire by now ...

... in Cardenas, Cuba!

[Judi Lynn]

3. You'd have it made in the shade, Mika. So much money annually, so few to take it!

That's just the way they like it, and fight like wild men/women to keep it.

Cardenas, the vacation spot of choice by members of the Lazaro Gonzalez clan of Little Havana, Miami.