US President Donald Trump has referred to as on Republicans to help his marketing campaign to dismantle the state-funded information outlet Voice of America (VOA).
Launched in 1942 to counter Nazi propaganda throughout World Conflict II, the broadcaster later served as a key automobile for pro-American messaging through the Chilly Conflict.
Trump has argued, nonetheless, that VOA has in latest a long time veered towards partisanship, and vowed to close it down as a part of his broader push to remove wasteful authorities spending.
“Why would a Republican need Democrat ‘mouthpiece’ Voice of America (VOA) to proceed? It’s a TOTAL, LEFTWING DISASTER — No Republican ought to vote for its survival. KILL IT!” the president wrote on his Fact Social platform on Wednesday.
Earlier that day, Trump’s senior adviser Kari Lake instructed the Home International Affairs Committee that the US Company for World Media (USAGM), which oversees VOA, was “rotten to the core” and ought to be reshaped to align with Trump’s “America First” agenda.
Committee Chairman Brian Mast described USAGM as “a cesspool of spies, lies, and mismanagement” that “has promoted the very propaganda it was created to defeat.” He accused the company of hiring overseas nationals, lots of whom he mentioned have been “fairly actually, safety dangers.”
Lake, who has been tasked by Trump with overseeing the dismantling of the company, mentioned final week that just about 640 full-time staffers and greater than 500 contractors had been laid off at USAGM and VOA.
Democrats and press freedom advocates have criticized the transfer. “The wholesale destruction of public media retailers like Voice of America represents an unprecedented present from Trump to the dictatorial censorship regimes in international locations like China and Iran,” mentioned Clayton Weimers, government director of Reporters With out Borders USA.
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