The question to be asked is not whether U.S. Agency for Global Media (USAGM) taxpayer-funded entities, particularly the Voice of America (VOA), compete with domestic media in the United States.
What experts and ordinary citizens should be asking is whether it has a positive or negative impact domestically and internationally, or even if it has any impact at all.
Let me answer the last question first.
Some VOA services — those managed by competent chiefs and staffed with well-trained and well-managed reporters do have an impact in certain countries, but increasingly VOA is becoming irrelevant, biased, even harmful to freedom and democracy.
After nearly 20 years of heavy investment and presence in Afghanistan, the country is ruled by the Taliban. USAGM and VOA management could not even anticipate the fall of Kabul and allowed its many journalists and employees to be stranded there. Many African countries, where VOA used to have some influence in the past, have sided with Russia against Ukraine and the U.S. government, and with Hamas against Israel and the U.S. government.
How could it be otherwise, if VOA managers, editors, and senior correspondents refuse to call Hamas members “terrorists” and argue that they should be called “fighters” because “many people in the world do not see them as terrorists. Some VOA journalists have posted death-to-Israel and resistance images on their personal Facebook pages and are still working for VOA. VOA also has posted videos showing the burning of Israeli and U.S. flags and propaganda videos about Putin and Chinese communists without any context and balance. Finally, VOA reporters have posted partisan, pro-Clinton and pro-Biden election campaign videos in 2016 and 2020.
While VOA indeed is not a major competitor domestically, the last time I checked nearly 50% of VOA English-language web traffic came from the United States. That in itself is troubling because VOA, by law, should be directed abroad. It shows that its influence abroad, at least in
English-language programming, is increasingly insignificant, as is its impact, especially in Africa. It is not a question of money.
USAGM’s budget today is larger, adjusted for inflation, that the entire U.S. broadcasting and public diplomacy budget during WWII. If we keep in mind that during WWII and for a few more years, VOA employed officials and journalists who were pro-Soviet, covered up Stalinist crimes, and supported the communist takeover of Eastern Europe, we should also wonder what kind of impact VOA managers, editors, and journalists who want to be “neutral” toward Hamas and who air Putin’s propaganda, can have on U.S. domestic audiences.
Without total shakeup of the senior management, much more careful vetting of journalists being hired (VOA has employed several former Putin media propagandists and may have employed a journalist accused of being a Russian spy), and much greater management and programming oversight, the Voice of America may not compete with domestic U.S. media in a significant way, but it has a negative impact, contributing to normalizing violence by extreme right-wing terrorist organizations, such as Hamas, while being fooled that they represent a progressive movement against colonialism, occupation, and oppression.
It’s bad enough that these U.S. government officials and journalists are being fooled, but they should not also try to fool Americans through their presence on domestic media. See this VOA video: https://youtu.be/nh1H4m2rHfg
The question to be asked is not whether U.S. Agency for Global Media (USAGM) taxpayer-funded entities, particularly the Voice of America (VOA), compete with domestic media in the United States.
What experts and ordinary citizens should be asking is whether it has a positive or negative impact domestically and internationally, or even if it has any impact at all.
Let me answer the last question first.
Some VOA services — those managed by competent chiefs and staffed with well-trained and well-managed reporters do have an impact in certain countries, but increasingly VOA is becoming irrelevant, biased, even harmful to freedom and democracy.
After nearly 20 years of heavy investment and presence in Afghanistan, the country is ruled by the Taliban. USAGM and VOA management could not even anticipate the fall of Kabul and allowed its many journalists and employees to be stranded there. Many African countries, where VOA used to have some influence in the past, have sided with Russia against Ukraine and the U.S. government, and with Hamas against Israel and the U.S. government.
How could it be otherwise, if VOA managers, editors, and senior correspondents refuse to call Hamas members “terrorists” and argue that they should be called “fighters” because “many people in the world do not see them as terrorists. Some VOA journalists have posted death-to-Israel and resistance images on their personal Facebook pages and are still working for VOA. VOA also has posted videos showing the burning of Israeli and U.S. flags and propaganda videos about Putin and Chinese communists without any context and balance. Finally, VOA reporters have posted partisan, pro-Clinton and pro-Biden election campaign videos in 2016 and 2020.
While VOA indeed is not a major competitor domestically, the last time I checked nearly 50% of VOA English-language web traffic came from the United States. That in itself is troubling because VOA, by law, should be directed abroad. It shows that its influence abroad, at least in
English-language programming, is increasingly insignificant, as is its impact, especially in Africa. It is not a question of money.
USAGM’s budget today is larger, adjusted for inflation, that the entire U.S. broadcasting and public diplomacy budget during WWII. If we keep in mind that during WWII and for a few more years, VOA employed officials and journalists who were pro-Soviet, covered up Stalinist crimes, and supported the communist takeover of Eastern Europe, we should also wonder what kind of impact VOA managers, editors, and journalists who want to be “neutral” toward Hamas and who air Putin’s propaganda, can have on U.S. domestic audiences.
Without total shakeup of the senior management, much more careful vetting of journalists being hired (VOA has employed several former Putin media propagandists and may have employed a journalist accused of being a Russian spy), and much greater management and programming oversight, the Voice of America may not compete with domestic U.S. media in a significant way, but it has a negative impact, contributing to normalizing violence by extreme right-wing terrorist organizations, such as Hamas, while being fooled that they represent a progressive movement against colonialism, occupation, and oppression.
It’s bad enough that these U.S. government officials and journalists are being fooled, but they should not also try to fool Americans through their presence on domestic media. See this VOA video: https://youtu.be/nh1H4m2rHfg