Trump guts government-funded media outlets
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The Trump Administration on Saturday ordered nearly all 1,300 employees of Voice of America to be placed on leave.
- It also terminated funding for its sister broadcasters such as Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (RFE/RL), Radio Free Asia (RFA) and Middle East Broadcasting Networks.
Why it matters: The decision sparked outrage from press freedom groups who say gutting those programs represents the latest effort by the Trump administration to abandon the historic role the U.S. has played in championing democracy and press freedom abroad.
Catch up quick: VOA is the largest of five international broadcasters represented by U.S. Agency for Global Media (USAGM), formerly the Broadcasting Board of Governors.
- Those broadcasters operate on congressionally approved funding.
- VOA was created more than 80 years ago to combat Nazi propaganda during WWII. Its mission is to promote democracy and American interests abroad through fact-driven journalism.
- A legal firewall is supposed to protect it from any government interference. Those boundaries were tested during the first Trump administration.
Zoom in: On Saturday, employees at VOA were informed by USAGM's director of human resources that they were placed on leave, barring them from entering VOA's headquarters and using USAGM-provided equipment.
- The move came as part of a directive issued late Friday by the White House to reduce statutory functions of "unnecessary governmental entities to what is required by law."
- USAGM special adviser Kari Lake canceled USAGM's 15-year lease, with a notice calling it "obscenely expensive."
- Other USAGM-funded broadcasters were told their funding would be terminated.
What they're saying: Attempts to defund RFERL "would be a massive gift to America's enemies, many of whom are already celebrating," Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty president and CEO Steve Capus said in a statement.
- "VOA needs thoughtful reform, and we have made progress in that regard. But today's action will leave Voice of America unable to carry out its vital mission. That mission is especially critical today, when America's adversaries, like Iran, China, and Russia, are sinking billions of dollars into creating false narratives to discredit the United States," Voice of America director Michael Abramowitz wrote on LinkedIn.
Zoom out: Trump allies have long criticized the VOA and USAGM press agencies as propagandists. Elon Musk has called for VOA to be shut down.
- Saturday's actions were foreshadowed two weeks ago, when Gavin Kliger, a former Twitter software engineer who is now part of Elon Musk's Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) team, was spotted inside VOA headquarters, sources told Axios.
- The week prior, USAGM placed one of the VOA's most visible journalists, chief national correspondent Steven Herman, on "excused absence" pending an HR investigation and reassigned the broadcaster's longtime White House bureau chief Patsy Widakuswara to another beat.
Yes, but: Attempts to defund USAGM-funded entities were halted by courts during Trump's first administration, and it could come up against legal pressure again this time around.
- Michael Pack, the conservative filmmaker who was nominated by President Trump to lead USAGM during his first term, was accused of fraud, as well as misuse of office, during his short tenure from 2020 to 2021.
What to watch: The gutting of USAGM's broadcast agencies would leave an information vacuum in parts of the world where fact-based journalism is difficult to access, advocates have argued.
- "The termination of RFA's grant is a reward to dictators and despots, including the Chinese Communist Party, who would like nothing better than to have their influence go unchecked in the information space," RFA president and CEO Bay Fang said in a statement.
