Latest news with #VOA
Mint
2 days ago
- Politics
- Mint
Donald Trump shoots his own global mouthpiece
Many have tried to stifle the Voice of America (VOA) in the eight decades since its hurried birth as a wartime broadcaster in 1942. These days China blocks its website and jams its signals. In 2017 Russia declared VOA to be a 'foreign agent'. Yet it is President Donald Trump who may silence it for good. His executive order on March 14th to 'eliminate' the network as far as legally possible had an immediate effect. Its 1,300 staff members were placed on paid leave. Broadcasts in 48 languages soon stopped. Such is the demise of a network whose 'jazz hour' famously beamed the 'music of freedom' behind the Iron Curtain. A similar fate has befallen or awaits Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (RFE/RL), Radio Free Asia, Middle East Broadcasting Networks' Arabic-language outlets and Radio and TV Martí, which broadcast to Cuba. For Elon Musk, America's chief cost-cutter, the networks are just waste. 'Nobody listens to them anymore' he posted on X, claiming they consisted of 'radical left crazy people talking to themselves while torching $1B/year of US taxpayer money'. Mr Musk is wrong to say 'nobody' listens. The US Agency for Global Media (USAGM), the government body that oversees all these outlets, claims they reach 427m people weekly in 63 languages and over 100 countries. VOA alone has a bigger audience than other publicly funded international broadcasters, such as the BBC World Service (see chart 1). Few people in America will have heard of them because they do not broadcast to the home audience. This may explain why the outlets have few powerful friends there. Yet there are legitimate and longstanding questions to be asked about whether they spread democracy and enhance American power, and whether they provide value for their annual $900m cost. These are even more salient in a world awash with blogs, newsletters and podcasts. 'Project 2025', a conservative blueprint for Mr Trump's second term, argued the USAGM was rife with left-wing bias, prone to repeating foes' propaganda, poorly run and, because of lax practices in security clearances, a target for foreign spies. Little of this has been proved. Nevertheless, Project 2025 recommended reform of the agency if possible, or its abolition if not. Kari Lake, a former TV presenter and devotee of Mr Trump, who has been nominated as VOA's director, for a time favoured reform and returning VOA to 'its glory days'. When Mr Trump announced his executive orders, though, she declared that 'from top to bottom, this agency is a giant rot.' Controversy over VOA and its siblings dates back almost to their establishment. RFE and RL were set up in the early cold war, partly inspired by George Kennan, an American diplomat, to wage 'organised political warfare' on the Kremlin. RFE transmitted to 'captive nations' under Soviet occupation; RL beamed to the Soviet Union itself. After the collapse of the Hungarian revolution of 1956, RFE was accused of having crossed a legal line between reporting and incitement. Nearly two decades later the revelation that the CIA had been funnelling money to the stations led to efforts in the Senate to shut them down, using arguments that sound surprisingly contemporary: their high cost; that western European countries should pay; and the difficulty of knowing whether they were useful. Their defenders included Henry Kissinger and Richard Nixon. Some ten years later the debate still raged: 'The worth of the broadcasts, in dollars and cents, is almost incapable of measurement,' said a study published in 1982, concluding that 'the benefits do seem substantial.' Many credit the stations with helping to defeat Soviet communism. Lech Walesa, Poland's former president, said his country's freedom was won by RFE and the pope. Meanwhile, RL was the first to broadcast the full text of Alexander Solzhenitsyn's 'Gulag Archipelago', a book that reputedly struck Soviet leaders 'like an atom bomb'. It is inevitably harder to assess the broadcasters' contribution in more recent times. By some measures the outlets have reported considerable success. Over the past decade they have nearly doubled the size of their weekly audience, from 215m in 2014 to 427m in 2024, despite increased competition. One reason for this may be that listeners see them as trustworthy. The Lowy Institute, an Australian think-tank, found that VOA accounted for 55% of online searches in 26 countries in Asia for foreign-radio broadcasters, well ahead of the second-most popular outlet, Russia's Sputnik, with 27% (see chart 2). The USAGM's most valuable units are probably those that most Americans have never heard of, such as Radio Free Asia, which can reach audiences living under the boot of authoritarian states that have few other reliable sources of news. It is one of the few independent media outlets that can winkle stories out of North Korea, or can generate scoops from Xinjiang and Tibet in China. The revelations of ethnic Uyghurs being corralled in massive Chinese 're-education' camps were largely its work. It is also one of the few independent news outlets that reaches Uyghurs, who try to evade state censorship of the internet by listening to its radio broadcasts. Though Russians face nothing like the levels of censorship and oppression of Uyghurs, RFE/RL plays an important role in nurturing independent local journalism. The strength of these outfits lies in their history as surrogates for local media behind the Iron Curtain, where they hired exiles to report on those countries in the local languages. This tradition continues today, with tailor-made programmes reaching the remotest regions that other outlets do not, from Dagestan to Siberia, and breaking stories about local corruption scandals and much more. VOA is akin to a state broadcaster like the BBC, offering a mix of political (especially American) news and lifestyle features and has the largest audience. But it is harder to argue that it provides an irreplaceable service across much of the world. Never before have people had access to such a wide range of news sources. There are, however, exceptions, particularly in parts of Africa where VOA covers smaller countries and contested elections that are often ignored. Its publicity can play a role in protecting opposition politicians and activists. 'In shining a spotlight on individual leaders, VOA helps to add a layer of security for them,' says Jeffrey Smith of Vanguard Africa, a pro-democracy outfit based in Washington. 'It lets leaders of [oppressive] governments know that the world—and that Washington in particular—is paying attention.' Staff at USAGM still hope that, faced with an outcry and lawsuits, the administration may relent. RFE/RL may be in a better position than their siblings as they may win a reprieve from European governments, ten of which said they would work together to find funding. The networks are trying to protect vulnerable staff from being sent home to repressive regimes. One reform option might be to merge overlapping functions and language services. USAGM uses complex metrics to measure its impact, including its audience, its trustworthiness, influence, and whether it increases knowledge of international news, particularly in places targeted by state-sponsored disinformation. Yet are reach and trustworthiness enough? Insiders argue that they produce invaluable journalism for less than Russia and China spend on their foreign-influence operations. They argue that they must be pricking a nerve, given the repression their journalists suffer: at least ten are currently in prison. Yet amid America's wider retreat from the network of alliances that have largely kept the peace for almost 80 years, and its gleeful destruction of a liberal economic order that made it richer, there is little hope that arguments around soft power or appeals to high-minded ideals will sway Mr Trump or Mr Musk. Nor will the gloating of America's foes. 'We couldn't shut them down, unfortunately,' said Margarita Simonyan, the editor of Russia's RT network. 'But America did so itself.' As their broadcasts cease, candles of hope in some of the world's darkest places are being snuffed out.
New York Post
2 days ago
- Politics
- New York Post
Voice of America's remaining 800 employees to get termination notices: report
The roughly 800 remaining full-time staffers at Voice of America are preparing for the worst as the US-funded international broadcaster is expected to issue mass termination notices this week, according to a report. Four VOA employees familiar with internal discussions told the news site Politico on Wednesday that the network's employees have been advised to expect reduction-in-force (RIF) notices in the coming days. A senior staffer said conversations with officials at the US Agency for Global Media (USAGM), which oversees VOA, indicate that the planned notices will effectively shut down the historic broadcaster, Politico reported. Advertisement 3 Voice of America's remaining 800 full-time employees are expected to receive termination notices this week, according to a report. AP The looming layoffs follow the earlier dismissal of nearly 600 contractors earlier this month by the Trump administration. One VOA employee said the agency's human resources department had been informed that RIF notices could go out as early as Wednesday. The wave of cuts comes in the wake of a March 15 executive order signed by President Donald Trump, which called for Voice of America and several other agencies to be 'eliminated to the maximum extent consistent with applicable law.' Advertisement The president has frequently attacked the broadcaster, calling it 'anti-Trump' and dubbing it 'The Voice of Radical America.' VOA employees, however, maintain they have adhered to their mission of delivering nonpartisan journalism. 'Even if somehow the organization can survive in some form, it would take years for our newsroom to overcome the trauma of being beaten up just for doing our job,' said VOA White House bureau chief Patsy Widakuswara, one of several plaintiffs in a lawsuit against the administration. Advertisement 3 President Trump signed an executive order in March calling for VOA and other agencies to be 'eliminated to the maximum extent consistent with applicable law.' REUTERS 'I don't know how we can return to our mandate to report the facts without fear or favor.' Since March, most VOA operations have remained dark. A limited number of staffers have returned to the office in recent weeks, which employees believe is an attempt by USAGM senior adviser Kari Lake, a close Trump ally, to maintain the legal bare minimum required for agency operation. Lake has also announced that content from the right-leaning One America News Network will now be distributed through VOA channels. Advertisement Despite legal challenges mounted by VOA employees claiming the shutdown violates First Amendment protections, a federal appeals court last week declined to block the administration's efforts. 3 Kari Lake, a former GOP candidate in Arizona, was tapped by Trump to head the agency overseeing VOA. AP The American Federation of Government Employees, which represents VOA staff, has demanded to bargain over the RIFs, but two employees say USAGM has yet to respond — a move that could breach the union's collective bargaining agreement. USAGM, the Department of Government Efficiency, and the White House all declined to comment. As the final staff departures appear imminent, VOA's website remains frozen in time. Its most recent article is dated March 15 — the day the president's order was signed.
Yahoo
3 days ago
- Business
- Yahoo
Remaining Voice of America employees expected to receive termination notice this week, Politico reports
Approximately 800 remaining full-time Voice of America (VOA) employees are expected to receive a notice of termination this week amid the Trump administration's funding cuts, Politico reported on May 28, citing four VOA employees. On March 15, Trump administration officials gutted funding for the U.S. Agency for Global Media (USAGM), which oversees VOA. In an email obtained by the Kyiv Independent in March, employees at VOA were instructed "not to enter USAGM premises" nor "access USAGM systems." Over 1,300 journalists, producers and support staff working at VOA were also placed on administrative leave. A senior VOA employee told Politico that USAGM-led layoffs would likely affect all staff, effectively shuttering operations. Earlier this month on May 15, about 600 contractors working for VOA received termination notices. VOA was founded in 1942, broadcasting in almost 50 languages around the world. Amid attempts by journalists to overturn the decision to gut funding, a U.S. federal judge on April 22 ordered the Trump administration to restore all employees and contractors at VOA, saying the administration's efforts to dismantle the outlet likely violated U.S. law. Last week, a federal appeals court overturned the decision, deciding that it would not intervene in the Trump administration's efforts to dismantle the long-standing network. Trump has long criticized U.S.-funded media organization, criticizing them over their coverage of the U.S. president, and often referring to them as "fake news." Trump's crackdown against VOA has been celebrated by Russian propagandists, who welcomed the cuts to the network. Read also: Ukraine war latest: Moscow proposes next round of Russia-Ukraine talks on June 2 in IstanbulWe've been working hard to bring you independent, locally-sourced news from Ukraine. Consider supporting the Kyiv Independent.
Express Tribune
3 days ago
- Politics
- Express Tribune
VOA nears its mic-drop moment
Termination notices are expected to go out to all remaining Voice of America employees this week, Politico reported on Wednesday, likely marking the end for a media broadcaster founded in 1942 to counter Nazi propaganda. The termination notices would affect the 800 remaining workers at the agency, which operates in nearly 50 languages and broadcasts to authoritarian regimes, Politico reported, citing four VOA employees familiar with the matter. VOA has been on the chopping block since March, when President Donald Trump ordered the gutting of the government-funded media outlet's parent, the US Agency for Global Media (USAGM), along with six other federal agencies. Earlier this month, nearly 600 VOA contractors were dismissed, leaving the roughly 800 remaining workers. Prior to the cuts, VOA reached 360 million people a week, many living under authoritarian regimes.
Politico
3 days ago
- Politics
- Politico
VOA prepares for shuttering
Presented by Welcome to POLITICO's West Wing Playbook: Remaking Government, your guide to Donald Trump's unprecedented overhaul of the federal government — the key decisions, the critical characters and the power dynamics that are upending Washington and beyond. Send tips | Subscribe | Email Sophia | Email Irie | Email Ben Voice of America may have been dealt its final blow. This week, all remaining VOA staff are expected to receive reduction-in-force notices, likely closing the book on the network founded 80 years ago to combat Nazi disinformation during World War II. Employees are anticipating termination notices to go out this week to all full-time staff at the embattled news network, according to four VOA employees familiar with the situation granted anonymity to discuss unannounced plans. Those terminations would affect the 800 remaining workers at the agency, after the Trump administration dismissed nearly 600 VOA contractors earlier this month. Employees have been advised by management to expect termination notices in the coming days. A senior VOA employee told POLITICO that based on his team's conversations with staff at the U.S. Agency for Global Media, VOA's parent company, the notices will likely affect all staff, effectively shutting down the international broadcasting network. Human resources employees at USAGM were told that RIF notices could go out as soon as today, according to another VOA employee. Thus far, USAGM has not responded to the union's demand to negotiate the RIFs. Two of the employees said refusing to do so would violate its collective bargaining agreement. A representative for the American Federation of Government Employees, which represents VOA, declined to comment. USAGM, the Department of Government Efficiency and the White House did not respond to requests for comment. The expected move comes as VOA has largely remained dark since March 15, when President DONALD TRUMP signed an executive order calling for the network to be 'eliminated to the maximum extent consistent with applicable law.' The president called VOA 'anti-Trump' and referred to it as 'The Voice of Radical America.' Its employees say they have stood by their commitment to reporting nonpartisan news. Since then, a few dozen VOA staffers have returned to office, which other staffers believe is an effort from USAGM senior adviser KARI LAKE — a staunch Trump ally — to maintain statutory minimums. The most recent article leading VOA's website is from March 15. Earlier this month, Lake announced that VOA would receive content from One America News Network, a far-right, pro-Trump network that has propagated conspiracies around Covid-19 and the 2020 presidential election. VOA has taken the Trump administration to court in the months following the order, arguing that the agency's closure was unlawful under the First Amendment. But last week, a federal appeals court said it would not intervene in the administration's efforts to dismantle the network. The latest round of terminations could affect the ongoing litigation, but employees aren't optimistic. 'Even if somehow the organization can survive in some form, it would take years for our newsroom to overcome the trauma of being beaten up just for doing our job,' said VOA White House bureau chief PATSY WIDAKUSWARA, one of the plaintiffs in the case. 'I don't know how we can return to our mandate to report the facts without fear or favor.' Read the full story here. MESSAGE US — West Wing Playbook is obsessively covering the Trump administration's reshaping of the federal government. Are you a federal worker? A DOGE staffer? Have you picked up on any upcoming DOGE moves? We want to hear from you on how this is playing out. Email us at westwingtips@ Did someone forward this email to you? Subscribe! MARK YOUR CALENDARS: The Conversation with Dasha Burns arrives on Sunday, June 1 — and we're dropping a first look. Each week on her new podcast, Dasha will sit down with one of the most compelling — and sometimes unexpected — power players in Washington. This isn't just a podcast. It's a new kind of political interview show for a moment when politics feels more personal, more chaotic and more consequential than ever. Catch the video and audio trailer out this morning to see what Dasha's digging into this season. And subscribe to the podcast, wherever you listen or watch. POTUS PUZZLER Which NBA team did former President BARACK OBAMA say he would have wanted to play on if he went pro? (Answer at bottom.) Musk Radar FEELING LEFT OUT: ELON MUSK attempted to block an OpenAI-led deal last week to build one of the world's largest artificial intelligence data centers in Abu Dhabi, WSJ's DANA MATTIOLI, JOSH DAWSEY and ELIOT BROWN report. Musk warned officials at G42, an AI firm controlled by the brother of the United Arab Emirates' president, that their plan had no chance of Trump signing off on it unless his company, xAI, was included in the deal. Just before Trump's Middle East tour, Musk grew angry after finding out that his former business partner-turned-rival OpenAI CEO SAM ALTMAN was going to be on the trip and that a deal in the U.A.E. was in the works. Musk joined the trip, appearing alongside Trump in Saudi Arabia. The president and U.S. officials proceeded with the deal despite Musk's frustration with being omitted. White House officials said Musk did not want a deal that would benefit Altman, the Journal reported. White House press secretary KAROLINE LEAVITT said, 'This was another great deal for the American people, thanks to President Trump and his exceptional team.' DRAMAAAAA: Musk is not too pleased with the sweeping spending bill the House passed at Trump's urging, our GREGORY SVIRNOVSKIY reports. Musk said in an interview excerpt released Tuesday that the 'Big Beautiful Bill' contradicts the spending cuts made by DOGE. 'I was disappointed to see the massive spending bill, frankly, which increases the deficit, not just decreases it, and undermines the work that the DOGE team is doing,' the billionaire Tesla CEO said in an interview with CBS scheduled to run in full Sunday. 'I think a bill can be big, or it can be beautiful, but I don't know if it can be both, in my personal opinion.' Agenda Setting HEADED TO THE HILL: The White House is planning to send a small package of some of DOGE's cuts to Capitol Hill next week, our MEREDITH LEE HILL and JENNIFER SCHOLTES report. The planned transmission of the $9.4 billion 'rescissions' bill comes after a long debate over how to formalize DOGE's cuts, which have fallen well short of Musk's initial multitrillion-dollar wishes. Two Republicans granted anonymity to discuss the plans say the package will largely target NPR and PBS, as well as foreign aid agencies that the administration has already gutted. It comes amid an online campaign to rally support for codifying the DOGE cuts, pushed by Musk-friendly Republicans like Sen. MIKE LEE of Utah, Florida Gov. RON DeSANTIS and Rep. MARJORIE TAYLOR GREENE of Georgia. UNO REVERSE: The Trump administration is reversing dozens of office lease cancellations involving the Labor Department's Mine Safety and Health Administration after pressure from Labor Secretary LORI CHAVEZ-DeREMER and other Republicans, our NICK NIEDZWIADEK reports. The department notified MSHA staff Tuesday that the General Services Administration recently told the DOL that 34 properties are no longer being shuttered, according to three people familiar with the notification. Most of the MSHA leases appear to have been removed from DOGE's 'wall of receipts,' though it's unclear when that occurred. MORE VISA HITS: Secretary of State MARCO RUBIO announced today a new visa policy restricting access to foreign officials who he argues are complicit in censoring what Americans say online, our AMANDA FRIEDMAN, ANTHONY ADRAGNA and NAHAL TOOSI report. 'For too long, Americans have been fined, harassed, and even charged by foreign authorities for exercising their free speech rights,' Rubio wrote on X. 'Free speech is essential to the American way of life — a birthright over which foreign governments have no authority.' In the Courts LET US BACK IN: Former employees in the GSA's Technology Transformation Service, known as 18F, filed a class-action appeal today with the U.S. Merit Systems Protection Board, seeking to have their March removals declared unlawful and reversed. 'The government has to follow the rules—just like the rest of us. We believe the elimination of 18F was unlawful, in violation of safeguards that exist to protect a nonpartisan civil service,' the former employees said in a statement. 'The fact that we have been prevented from completing this work underscores that DOGE's actions are not in service of efficiency,' they added. YOU MAY PROCEED: A lawsuit alleging DOGE is illegally wielding power over government operations can move forward, an Obama-appointed judge ruled Tuesday, NPR's STEPHEN FOWLER reports. U.S. District Court Judge TANYA CHUTKAN's 42-page order in the lawsuit — filed by several Democratic attorneys general — denies a motion to dismiss the case. But she did grant a motion to dismiss Trump from being a defendant, finding 'the court may not enjoin the President in the performance of his official duties.' The plaintiffs argued that Musk, as a special government employee, has similar powers to Senate-confirmed Cabinet officials, an argument that Chutkan felt was sufficient to proceed. A WIN FOR DOGE: A team from DOGE can now access a Treasury Department system that controls trillions of dollars in federal payments, a judge ruled late Tuesday, ABC News' PETER CHARALAMBOUS reports. U.S. District Judge JEANNETTE VARGAS allowed four DOGE employees to access the Bureau of the Fiscal Service, which serves as the de facto checkbook for the government. In a victory for the Trump administration, Vargas said she would no longer require administration officials to get permission from the court before expanding access to other DOGE representatives. COURTS ARE GETTING BUSY: The Trump administration today moved to dismantle one of the government's longest-standing affirmative action programs, WaPo's JULIAN MARK reports. In a motion filed in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Kentucky, the DOJ said that a Transportation Department program which carved out an estimated $37 billion for minority- and women-owned businesses violates the equal protection clause of the Constitution. If the judge approves the proposed settlement, the Disadvantaged Business Enterprise Program will be prohibited from awarding contracts based on race and sex. The case was brought in 2023 by two contracting businesses with white owners alleging they lost out on jobs when the agency began awarding contracts through the 'largest, and perhaps oldest affirmative action program in U.S. history.' WHO'S IN, WHO'S OUT PACK YOUR THINGS: A senior leader at the Interior Department's Bureau of Land Management was escorted out of agency headquarters Tuesday after POLITICO reported that he opposed staffing directions from a former DOGE appointee, our BEN LEFEBVRE reports. MIKE NEDD, BLM's deputy director for administration and programs, was at the agency for nearly three decades. His departure is the latest personnel upheaval at the bureau, which is considered instrumental to the Trump administration's fossil fuel production goals. Nedd opposed carrying out directives signed by STEPHANIE HOLMES, a former DOGE staffer who is now embedded as Interior's acting chief human capital officer. Holmes' May 2 memo instructed employees to stop doing 'detail' work — temporarily filling vacant positions — and return to their official positions. What We're Reading The Trump Presidency's World-Historical Heist (The Atlantic's David Frum) 'He Is Ohio': DeWine Pitches an Alternative to Ramaswamy (POLITICO's Jonathan Martin) A Missouri Town Was Solidly Behind Trump. Then Carol Was Detained (NYT's Jack Healy) We Made a Film With AI. You'll Be Blown Away — and Freaked Out. (WSJ's Joanna Stern and Jarrard Cole) POTUS PUZZLER ANSWER Despite being a Chicago Bulls fan, Obama said in 2018 that he would want to play for the San Antonio Spurs, a franchise built on smart players and the visionary leadership of GREGG POPOVICH, who recently stepped down as coach. 'They're smart, they're well-run, they're focused on team,' Obama said. 'They treat everybody in the organization with respect, and that is the kind of organization that I want to be a part of … If you look at what they've built … It's just a smart, well-run operation with a good culture.' Popovich, a Trump critic, was flattered to hear the praise. 'I'd have to do a background check on him, though, because I've heard some things he's done in the past aren't very good,' he joked.
