DATE=5-13-02

TYPE=English Feature

NUMBER=7-36292

TITLE=Snapshot # 28 "…We Shall Tell You the Truth…"

BYLINE=Adam Phiillips

TELEPHONE=212-264-2148

DATELINE=New York

EDITOR=Nancy Smart/ Al Pessin

CONTENT=

MUSIC OPENING YANKEE IN FULL :01 AND UNDER

ANNCR: Now a VOA Snapshot remembering our past as we look to the future in this, our 60th Anniversary Year.

MUSIC UP FULL BRIEFLY TO START SECOND THEME AND UNDER

HOST: Hi, I'm _________. …

HOST: In the late 1930s, the United States was the only major power

without an overseas short wave radio service. To right this balance,

President Franklin Roosevelt announced the formation of the

Foreign Information Service - or F-I-S - in mid-1941. On February

twenty-fourth 1942, 79 days after American entry into World War

Two, the FIS made its first medium and long wave transmission to

Europe. In it, Announcer William Harlan Hale announced, in German, a

"voice from America."

TAPE: ARCHIVAL RECORDING OF MAIDEN BROADCAST

"Ich Stimmer und voice der America..." [and under]

HOST: In contrast to government stations in the Axis, Mr. Hale

promised to bring the unvarnished truth, not propaganda, to

listeners. "The news may be good. The news may be bad," he

continued in that first broadcast, "we shall tell you the truth."

John Aulicino, one-time chief of the New York Programs Center, joined the VOA the next year, in 1943. He remembers the unusual balance VOA journalists had to strike in the Voice of America's early days.

TAPE: AULICINO

"It was wartime so there was a control center where scripts had

to be brought and checked and monitored before being actually

broadcast. On the other hand, from the beginning, we were guided

by those words which are emblazoned in the minds of so many

old-time VOA'ers: 'the news may be good or bad but we will bring you

the truth.' And during the war, as much as possible with, of course, the

security of our troops being considered fully -- the truth was told of the

defeats as well as the victories."

HOST: Then, as now, VOA broadcasts emanated from the U-S

government. Still, pains have always been taken to keep the

promotion of government policy separate from news reporting.

John Aulicino adds that, during his four decade tenure, competing

reactions to government policy pronouncements were always

broadcast along with news of the policies themselves.

TAPE: AULICINO

"And we did it for our own self-interest! Because if we don't tell the truth, other people will tell the truth, and you lose your credibility so when you do tell the truth, they won't believe you!"

HOST: Sixty years and many challenges later, the firewall between the policy

and news-writing departments at the Voice of America remains strong.

MUSIC, SNEAK UNDER END OF PIECE, UP FULL TO BRIDGE, AND UNDER

ANNCR: Listen for VOA Snapshots throughout our 60th anniversary

year, here on VOA.

MUSIC UP FULL TO BUTTON

OPTIONAL LIVE TAG: To write to us about our anniversary, send an email

to anniversary@voanews.com. Or, send regular mail to Anniversary, VOA News

Washington, D.C. 20237, USA.