Voice shmoice
All full-time staffers at the Voice of America and the Office for Cuba Broadcasting, which runs Radio and Television Martí, were affected — more than 1,000 employees. The move followed a late Friday night edict from President Trump that its parent agency, called the U.S. Agency for Global Media, must eliminate all activities that are not required by law.
In addition, under the leadership of Trump appointees, the agency has severed all contracts for the privately incorporated international broadcasters it funds, including Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, Radio Free Asia and the Middle East Broadcasting Networks.
Gosh it seems like only yesterday that Republicans were enthusiastic about broadcasting pro-US content all around the planet.
The termination notices for grants for the funded networks, two of which were reviewed by NPR, carried the signature of Trump’s senior adviser Kari Lake, whom he placed at USAGM, not the agency’s acting chief executive. Lake does not appear in her current job to have the statutory authority to carry out that termination.
Pfffff. Statutory shmatutory, who cares. She works for the Big Boss and what the Big Boss says=law.
“The cancellation of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty’s grant agreement would be a massive gift to America’s enemies,” Steve Capus, the president of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, said in a statement today shared with NPR. “The Iranian Ayatollahs, Chinese communist leaders, and autocrats in Moscow and Minsk would celebrate the demise of RFE/RL after 75 years. Handing our adversaries a win would make them stronger and America weaker. We’ve benefitted from strong bipartisan support throughout RFE/RL’s storied history. Without us, the nearly 50 million people in closed societies who depend on us for accurate news and information each week won’t have access to the truth about America and the world.”
Sorry, we’re now on team Ayatollahs and Autocrats.
Taken together, the federally-funded broadcasters and their sister networks covering the Middle East and Cuba reach 420 million people in 63 languages and more than 100 countries each week, according to the agency. They are fully funded by federal dollars.
The networks’ mission is to deliver news coverage and cultural programming to places where a free press is threatened or doesn’t exist. They are also designed as a form of soft diplomacy, modeling independent journalism that incorporates dissent from government policy.
Or you could call it propaganda, or capitalist propaganda, or imperialist propaganda. We are daily being instructed in how much worse angry self-dealing plutocratic propaganda is.
The Voice of America sparked Trump’s ire in his first term in office over reporting on Covid-19. His appointee as chief executive for U.S. Agency for Global Media embarked on a series of suspensions, visa revocations and investigations that were found, in some instances, to violate the law and federal policy.
This time, Trump’s budget-slashing adviser, Elon Musk, and other administration officials have called for Voice of America and some of the sister networks to be shut down. The scope and legality of these acts are not yet in full focus, but they appear to be designed to gut them and place whatever coverage survives under tighter control of politically appointed officials.
Aka TrumpMusk stooges.
The broadcasters’ reporting has angered some powerful figures abroad, including those who have close links to Trump.
The reporting of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, for example, has vexed autocratic-minded leaders in Russia and Hungary, as well as their allies. The network’s journalists have been imprisoned or detained in Russian-controlled Crimea, Belarus, Azerbaijan and Russia itself.
Trump has struck warm relations with Russian President Vladimir Putin and Hungarian Premier Viktor Orbán.
Autocrats gotta stick together – except when distributing the spoils of course.
Radio Free Asia’s reports on the oppression of Uighur Muslims by Chinese authorities helped to bring their plight to international attention. In 2020, North Korean officials executed the owner of a fishing fleet for secretly listening to broadcasts by Radio Free Asia while at sea, the network reported. Authorities brought in 100 of his peers to watch the execution as a warning of the dangers of tuning in.
How long before Trump is doing the same thing?
Will anyone amongst the United States dwindling number of friends and allies think to create a Radio Free America to return the favour and repay the debt? It might be needed sooner rather than later.
This is where America’s adversaries are likely way ahead of Trump. They’re already planning their next series of moves, getting their pieces in place, while Trump, lacking both forethought and impulse control, is crowing about having his one marshmallow now.