historical dominance over oil markets and energy prices. they're actually working to undermine our energy industry. as a consequence of president obama's nuclear agreement with iran, this state sponsor of terrorism will now be able to increase its oil exports at a moment when our moderate sunni allies and their partners feel increasingly threatened by iranian belligerents. as a result, saudi arabia has opened this big it to maintain its own levels of exports. letting your pins power base on the world stage is the fact that so much of europe depends on oil and gas from russia. gas is relying on oil and dollars to fund its brutal terrorist activities in the middle east and the on. part of defeating eiffel will include militarily denying them oil, revenues, which they are using to fund their operations. we cannot do that and at the

same time be reliant on oil from the middle east. for all of these reasons, we need to make our nation energy secure. we need to be creating good quality energy jobs here at home rather than seeing them created overseas, often in countries that are our adversaries. the ability to competes is also vital for economic growth and job creation and other industry sectors, as well. because energy is a foundational industry. us more energy makes competitive in the global economy across the board. and all industry sectors. more supply means more prices at the pump. which benefits all families and small businesses across america. energy security is vitally important part of our national security. americans have seen what it means to depend on opec for their energy needs and they do not want to go back to that era of embargoes and high prices at the pump.

as europe faces with russia and opec today. the same time, as we develop and apply new technologies to produce more energy, more efficiently, and more cost-effectively, we are also improving environmental stewardship. ironically, as they are producing more oil and gas, we are actually lowering co2 emissions. between 2007 when carbon dioxide emissions plateaued, and 2014, we have reduced carbon dioxide emissions by nearly 10%. that is in part because we are producing and using more natural gas from domestics -- in my home state. lifting the antiquity ban on oil exports and enabling our country to competes is one example. it illustrates the republican approach which is to empower men and women in all industry sectors compete by unleashing the entrepreneurial spirit of the american people. combine that spirit with a

pro-work business climate that incentivizes investment and innovation across the interstate sectors, you have a formula for success. americans can compete with anyone, anywhere, anytime. but we need to empower them to do so. we need to help industries across the board, our farmers, ranchers, and small businesses to backbone our country to grow and create good jobs of the future. you do that by building the kind of legal tax and regulatory climate that attracts investment, innovation, and jobs. you do that by reforming the tax cut to make it simpler, flatter, and fair. so that the american people have the motivation to compete and win. you do by reducing the size and scope of government and the federal bureaucracy so that our president and congress are working for, not against, the innovative men and women who are striving every day to build a future of america.

finally coming to buy controlling federal spending to string guard that and deficit. we must stop mortgaging our children's future. these are the ways in which you create economic growth and jobs. these are the ways you build opportunity and prosperity for all. and after all, opportunity and the chance to succeed no matter who you are or where you came from are the hallmarks of america. the american dream is and what has always been all about. thank you. and best wishes for a wonderful new year. >> here on c-span the communicators is next with john lansing. ceo of the broadcasting board of governors. then, epa administrator gina mccarthy talks about the climate agreement that was reached last month in paris by nearly 200 countries. and 8:00, public and present a candidates discuss poverty and the economy at the cannes foundation performance afterlife.

c-span, credit by america's cable companies 35 years ago and brought to you as a public service by or local cable or satellite provider. peter: this week on "the communicators" we want to introduce you to john lansing who is the new ceo of the broadcasting board of governors. the bbg,ng, what is what do you do? john: it is the five entities that are federally funded for international media. the voice of america, middle east broadcasting, radio for europe, radio free asia. what is the budget for the bbg? john: roughly $750 million. peter: where does that money go? john: the vast majority goes to voice of america. his largest of the entities, about 70% of that goes there. peter: what kind of technologies

does the bbg our voice of america, any of these entities do? john: they're all broadcast media platforms everything from radio to tv, but increasingly the emphasis will be on digital platforms, social media, as a expand around the world. but, anyway that we can reach an audience that have influence with that audience is important and we will use it. peter: who can listen to voa? radio marti is on the island of cuba. it is available to audiences on the island. voice of america is throughout central africa, eastern europe, afghanistan, asia. indonesia. it is really a global media platform. peter: what kind of news is reported on these channels? john: voice of america has a mission to tell america story around the world. but to be clear, all of the bbg entities including voice of

america are engaged in professional journalism. , 3000 euros around the world are working every day to tell stories whether it is inside of the country as a surrogate broadcaster, meaning that they are there to tell the stories within that particular country, they may not be being told because of the repression of the press in certain parts of the world, or we are telling america story around the world. a justjohn lansing and edited september, but the question that you get asked quite a bit and has been asked for several years now, with all the new technologies, that are available, has the mission become obsolete for the broadcasting board of governors? john: i see quite the opposite. it has never been more critical, i think with the growth of propaganda around the world, whether it be out of russia or -- ther certainly isis world is awash with information and much of that information is propaganda.

people, there is a concern that the bbg is perhaps not stepping up and fighting directly with that propaganda. but, our view is, and my personal view is, that the best or presentation of the united states -- the value of the united states is to bring professional journalism and truth telling into regions of the world to do not have that. peter: join our conversation today is ron nexen was the washington correspondent for the new york times. ron: thank you for having me. ask, do youin and get a lot of criticism about bbg , chairman royce, the committee, former secretary clinton, to criticize the agency, and you hear words like "actively "dysfunctional."

your position is fairly new. can you tell us what you are doing to sort of address some of these criticisms that have been leveled against the agency? john: before i accept the position i had been in the role since september. as you know, the role is new. there was somebody in a prior to my being in this role, and it was and the lat, who is in it for a few months. my observation is that i look at the opportunity last summer and i spoke with all of the constituencies on the hill, the white house, the state department, is that the fact that the bbg was set up originally without a ceo and just taken out of the conversation for a second, it not about me, but the role of the ceo, imagine running an agency of five media, global media brands, with 3000 employees without a full-time manager to lead that agency, but rather a board.

to say that it was dysfunctional almost suggests that it could have been functional, if you will. i think that is really the issue. i think having a professional management structure that reports to a board, and by the way the board that we have now and the reason that i am here is a really high functioning, high-quality board and our board chair, jeff shall, whose day job is the chairman of nbc universal pictures, is doing a fantastic job leading our board and leading our management team. to create more functionality. now, any media entity will have some dysfunction. i'm sure there's some of the new york times. i know in past experience that i have had, and to some extent, a good newsroom will always have a little dysfunction because a good newsroom made up of people who are skeptical by nature and to ask are questions. so i welcome that. one of the first things i did in september was meet with the

newsroom and the d.o.a. and talk to them about their concerns. at the time, there were concerns about some pushing toward less objective coverage of certain subjects. it was a very hearty conversation. very honest. i felt very much in my elements and found it to be welcoming to me that people were -- felt that they could say with a needed to say and say it out loud. let's go back to the point that you brought up before about this idea of the world being awash with information and a lot of it is propaganda. there has been this concern in , voa in that bbg particular, has not done enough to counter russia or to counter the chinese or i still or boko haram or any other groups out there that utilize social media in their recruitment of westerners. as an example, westerners, but

there are others as well. can you think, practically, what kinds of things that bbg is doing or planning to do to push back against those kinds of propaganda efforts? wouldthe first thing i say about propaganda is that it is a fancy word for a lie. sides tolly aren't two a lie. so this notion that you push back against propaganda suggests that you are taking something that is fundamentally untrue and giving it credibility i holding it up and explaining why it is untrue instead of just saying -- doing with the truth as the truth is. i would say that the best counter the fact -- counter effective propaganda is independent, high-quality journalism that is in the business of truth telling, whether that be about foreign governments or our own government. but in terms of what can we do? i know there is a lot of

discussion on the hill about the organization and whether or not to reorganize it, and i think that is an interesting conversation and in fact i think reform is always a good thing with a media entity and the reforming of the bbg is on my agenda, as a matter of fact. the reforms that icn our management team and our board sees is the need to push more of our content into mobile and social platforms. and to be in these conversations that are happening that are peer-to-peer around the world. i think the old model of a big broadcast antenna or big printing press for that matter, going in one message to millions of people, will still exist for a while, but i think for younger audiences, and for influential, younger audiences, and in parts of the world that are the most dangerous, i think the most important platforms are those that are more peer-to-peer. i think if we can be successful in bringing high-quality, professional journalism to influence those peer-to-peer conversations, particularly among moderate, perhaps moderate

muslims in syria and iraq, places like eastern ukraine, china, the periphery, getting into this conversations and having a reputation as truth tellers in this conversations is really the most important thing. the last thing i will say to that is the investment that we have. the difference is really, let's take a snapshot of russia's investment in their state media versus the united states. it is really 102 one difference. we are the one. we are just under billion dollars. that billion dollars in different pockets is an interesting conversation, but calling it reform i think is an interesting approach, but i think the real reform would be to think about how serious do we want to invest in the messaging that is our messaging, which is the values of the united states as are presented by high-quality journalism. again, as talk about,

little further into this idea of countering propaganda with straight journalism. you know that there are those in congress and other areas to say, well we have cnn, slightly a government-funded cnn to do that? the charter of the away calls for representation for the american viewpoint, but at the same time, providing quality journalism, so how do you balance those two competing and often contradictory missions? john: i'll cover the first one. there is cnn and nbc news and is,news, but the reality where voa, particularly, has news fears and where the others have news bureaus, are reporting in china, in cuba, there is no cnn. not in those places.

i just turned from a trip to ukraine, and the most widely respected and influential journalists in ukraine work out of our building. at the voice america. along with her, from voice of america there is also a local reporter from radio free europe was the most influential investigative reporter inc. yes. so, in that one critical part of the world, where russia -- there is hot war on the eastern front, the most influential journalist entitiesountry are two from the united states, voice of america and radio free europe. cnn does a great job around the world, and i admire the work that they do, but, there is no comparison to the deployment of resources that we have. to the second point of your the abundanceink of information that we are

dealing with in terms of propaganda, i think it is easy to overstate the influence that it is having. i think there is -- as early get it seriously and i understand that it is volume us. but in the research that we have done and in my own walking the streets of kiev, ukraine, talking to government officials there, i spoke to the foreign relations chair of the parliament and she told me that the work that is being done is having an absolute, critical effect on countering the volume of propaganda because the credibility israel. and as journalists, it is sometimes a little idealistic, i still have a little of that idealism. but, it really does matter when it is credible. credibility is a heavyweight against volume, in terms of propaganda. ron: let's talk about the

reform. again, as you know, there has been criticism about the implication of efforts at bbg. you have voa, but then you have radio free europe, that will have people that say that, so you have people from the same -- recognizing that rfe is a surrogate, which i will ask you to explain a little bit later. is that part of reforms? needok at, do we really for sets of eyes reporting on this rather than we having voa there. could you also explain that structure of how surrogates differ from the away? that i didirst thing my first two weeks and i came on board in september is i read the legislation and the founding

legislation of the bbg and in it i noticed that it called for the formation of something called the international sporting counsel. i said, what is the international court of knitting counsel? it is the leaders of the five entities who the legislation in vision would come together as a council on a regular basis and discuss how to be strategically thened so that you remove -- effort and kramer impact. i call that group together let's do that. so we did. and so we have formed the icc. it meets twice with me, twice a month. we're meeting tomorrow. and that group of five entity leaders has done it workable job, just in this first four months together of really looking around the world as their various theaters of operation and how they can cooperate for greater impact. what is an example of that?

middle east broadcasting network was doing a series of targetingies in iraq moderate muslims. a delusional paradise. the idea was to show the delusion of this notion that leaving home and joining isis brings you to some situation of paradise. it is a heart-wrenching series and it shows what is left behind, the families left behind. in one scene, it shows a mother holding a cell phone saying, i just got a call from ice on, but it was not my son, it was some videos telling me --. a year ago that would have run in iraq and then it would have been on a show. the international court in any counsel came together and said, can i run that in the china sphere, can i run that in the eastern asia radio free europe? voice of america ran it. he became something that was

disseminated and put into context in various ways around the world. iraq paidvestment in off. around the world. the united states elections are coming up obviously, and we have the iowa primaries, this council is not according coverage, before years ago the coverage would have been a coordinated and puts it is. -- two plus -- now these strategic and more impactful for less money. there are many more examples, but the point is that there was never an effort to ordinate and be strategic. it was not that hard. it is required back to the idea of having central leadership. about, point or question what is a circuit? i do not know what it was either. a surrogates is an organization that is doing journalism in a country where a free press is either limited or nonexistent. so they are the surrogate. that is a radio free europe is

doing in the balkans. in central asia. that is the middle east broadcasting network is doing and a rock. that is what rfa is doing around the periphery of china. and the other is not a circuit, -- not a surrogate. journalism, it is stories about america, often governmental stories, but my hope is that it will expand to stories that tell a broader swath of information about american entrepreneurialism. health. finance. had to start a business. stories that are just not being told globally. that are coming out of america and can be told, but there are parts of the world where voa is also a surrogate and that is in central africa. in the only independent news many parts of central africa is

voice of america doing surrogate news. had back problems, the only reporter on the air when -- went down was a voice of america reporter. in paris wentings down, it just so happens that a voice of america reporter was in paris and was able to do reporting for all of the other entities. so, voice of america wears two hats, often. it is a larger more capable organization for wearing two hats because of the weight is resourced. that is not to say that there is not some remaining duplication. in my sense of the way that we think about this, to reform the duplication would not be to eliminate, but rather to structure strategically for greater impact back to the point

that the russians are spending $100 billion and we are spending $750 million. my first impulse than happy to stop doing some things. it would be to take what we happen to plant more strategically. to: is it illegal to listen radio free asia in china? peter: is the website blocked? are the airwaves blocked from people hearing or finding radio free asia? john: for the most part, yes. peter: how do you get around that? john: in terms of the internet, there are investments that we make in our internet freedom program. it allows people to circumvent the censorship and access free content in places like china. that is another thing that bbg does that many people are not aware of, and that is our open technology fund and are internet freedom office which invests, through congress, and the

appropriations, invest in technology that help people access the internet and other media that they otherwise the not able to access about the technology. peter: do you have any idea what the penetration of the rescission is in iraq and syria? john: fairly impressive. 25%-20% on a weekly basis. i will say this, to your question that while our reach is important, whether it is then a rock or anywhere else, increasingly, michael is for us to measure impact the aunt reach. any media is really measuring engagement more than just how many viewers watched a tv show. you have to reach somebody to impact them. i understand that. but we are going to be shifting resources in our research areas so that we can report back to congress and report back to any other board how we are impacting people in these parts of the world. not just how we're reaching them. can americans read,

listen, watch your stories? john: the way it was structure, it was structured to not be available to american so that that it not bere viewed as a way to -- federal government influencing people in america with investments in journalism, but through the internet now, that had to be amended. to recognize that the internet is hard to block and we certainly would not be in the business of doing that for americans. andcan go on voa news.org look at the list version of voa anytime. --: what is the future of giving our warming relationship with cuba? john: a great question. we have thought about that a lot. i think about, why are we doing radio marquee and tv marquee on the island? the reason is that there is a limited ability on the island

for people to access information. the warming relations are a good thing and i think they will continue to point toward more freedom, but to this point, relations have not warmed at any point where the cuban government is allowing more freedom of information. so, 4s, the trigger point for any change would be more around the specific aspect of information freedom that will be monitored. ron: there is this notion, not that we true it is, produce it, but it is being blocked on the islands. how true is that, and what is the reach on the island? john: it is more difficult to do research in certain parts of the world and that is one of them. we have some ability to do research with people coming off the islands and anecdotal research and focus groups. -- i cannot give a specific number on the reach, but it is certainly substantial

and i think the best evidence of that is when you're the government of cuba criticizing a cb's work and pleading that it be stopped and shut down. best measure of impact is the concern that they have that is there. you talk about impact, -- the work that you do is not well known because as you say for a long time americans were not allowed to listen to the away or even to get access to information about it. but, one of the things that i the reporting that came out of nigeria about the former formernt hiring apartheid south african

mercenaries to fight global wrong, that was broken by reporters from the away, right? why is that not widely known? why does the away not tell its story more? it's true. i think it is an artifact, again, of it not being originally not being a central at theent system over bbg and it being run by a board of nine individuals that met once or twice, maybe once a month, maybe six times a year. more naturalhe things that you would do in setting up a professional media organization like having a department that helps tell the story of what the organization is doing, this was not as fully formed and funded and that is another thing. it is not the most important thing, but it is important that citizens know how their tax dollars are being spent and the impact that they are having around the world. for that reason, it is important. we will invest in that and be a better job, telling our stories

of what we are trying to do in the world. ron: let's talk ron: let's talk more on the technological side. department countering violent extremism. isis is like a startup. some of the government efforts are like ibm. [laughter] it's dodgy and has no idea how to connect. one, do you think that is true, and two, what is your answer? we talk about mobile platforms and social media, but how do you actually know that it's working? know that youu can actually access those people in the way