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Isn't VOA (and BBC for that matter) government owned & funded? That's enough right there for me to doubt their "reliably factual" reporting. It's hardly a political opinion- the owners of these services expect to get some return on their investment. Because they're not in it for the money (they can just create more money basically at will), then why are they in it? Likely to help craft a narrative that suits them.

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At least for the bbc, the government isn't directly involved in the editorial. They have to resort to appointing their friends director general & threatening to abolish the licence fee to try to get what they want.

VOA and BBC are not alike at all in my opinion. Many countries in Western/Northern Europe have government funded sites run like the BBC and they are mostly in the top of unbiased and free journalism. They also create a lot of high quality documentaries and crime thrillers.

Nothing is perfect and of course there's a certain kind of culture on each of these workplaces that will mske it either more left or right up or down, but they aren't controlled by politicians, just like a hospital isn't told how to treat patients by politicians.

I'd rank BBC News above all US news outlets (and I'll just add I'm neither from the US nor UK).

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