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At Voice of America, Trump Appointee Sought Political Influence Over Coverage

Somerville

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After reading the article I would say that Mr Pack has done more than "Sought Political Influence". For those on the forum who rant and rave about the "Goebbel's News" and the 'librul lamestream media", what we are seeing at the U.S. Agency for Global Media, is much closer to what history tells us about the media in nations led by dictators. For the employees at VOA, it has become a choice between keeping their job and doing actual reporting.

At Voice of America, Trump Appointee Sought Political Influence Over Coverage

At the Voice of America, staffers say the Trump appointee leading their parent agency is threatening to wash away legal protections intended to insulate their news reports from political meddling.

"What we're seeing now is the step-by-step and whole scale dismantling of the institutions that protect the independence and the integrity of our journalism," says Shawn Powers, until recently the chief strategy officer for the U.S. Agency for Global Media, which oversees VOA.

Voice of America's mission is a form of soft diplomacy: to embody democratic principles through fair reporting and to replace a free press in countries where there is none. VOA and its four sister networks together reach more than 350 million people abroad each week.

Since taking office in June, Pack has upended the agency. In a podcast interview last week with the pro-Trump website The Federalist, Pack said he had to take action because many executives and journalists were disregarding the agency's ethical standards.

"My job really is to drain the swamp, to root out corruption, and to deal with these issues of bias, not to tell journalists what to report," Pack told host Chris Bedford. Pack has declined NPR's repeated and detailed requests for comment.

Hmm, sounds like some other well-known, 'not really a politician' guy. "Drain the Swamp!

Not only have qualified people lost their jobs, some former employees could be facing retaliation from their home nations.
Pack took office in June and quickly upended the federal broadcasters. Already, he has fired or suspended most of the executive staff and nearly all the heads of his agency's networks, which include Radio Free Europe and Radio Free Asia, among others. He has withheld approval of visa extensions that foreign employees need to continue working for those networks. A return home without U.S. protection could leave some employees and their families vulnerable to regimes hostile to the U.S. government.
 
After reading the article I would say that Mr Pack has done more than "Sought Political Influence". For those on the forum who rant and rave about the "Goebbel's News" and the 'librul lamestream media", what we are seeing at the U.S. Agency for Global Media, is much closer to what history tells us about the media in nations led by dictators. For the employees at VOA, it has become a choice between keeping their job and doing actual reporting.

Director Michael Pack has been turning the USAGM – U.S. Agency for Global Media – into a Trump government-propaganda organ.

Because Pack's nomination by Trump was highly contentious (this position is usually filled by a neutral careerist, not a controversial conservative filmmaker), Mitch McConnell had to invoke cloture to get Pack confirmed in the Senate.

Whatever Donald Trump touches he converts into something that will serve his political/business interests. Never anything simply for the good of the country.
 
There was a time when all Americans were supportive of VOA because they beamed real news and truth through the Iron Curtain and elsewhere to counter suppressive and totalitarian regimes that used propaganda to keep their populations in the dark. People in those countries risked their lives every time they listened to VOA via shortwave or other means. It was America using its might for right.

Now Putin has told Trump that VOA has to go. Hence, Pack has been dispatched to disassemble VOA.
 
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