Weekend Update: USAGM's suicide mission
The quest continues to stop the overseers of U.S. international broadcasting from killing key components of American soft power
WASHINGTON — The legal battles and the quest in the court of public opinion to save U.S. international broadcasting are mounting.
There are now five lawsuits against the U.S. Agency for Global Media and its leaders, who are apparently taking their cues from a White House which labeled VOA as “the voice of radical America,” and the so-called Department of Government Efficiency, commanded by chainsaw-wielding billionaire Elon Musk.
A federal judge in New York City granted a temporary restraining order against USAGM, ordering it to not to proceed with firing 1,350 staffers of the Voice of America, off-air since mid-March.
“This is an important first step towards reinstatement and reopening of Voice of America and the other USAGM networks,” according to David Seide, a senior counsel at the Government Accountability Project, who spoke at a news conference at the National Press Club.
The case of Widakuswara v. Lake has been transferred to Washington, D.C. and the plaintiffs await a hearing on a requested preliminary injunction and whether it’ll be consolidated with a similar case filed belatedly. (I’ve been speaking about our case on behalf of one of the plaintiffs, the American Foreign Service Association, which is my union, and I’ve filed a declaration with the court).
No judge has yet ordered USAGM to resume production of VOA programming and switch back on the radio transmitters and satellite TV transponders for the audience of 360 million. As a result, thousands of affiliate broadcasters around the world have also lost access to VOA news and information programs in four dozen languages.
A U.S. district judge in Washington has blocked USAGM from freezing grants for Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, but the government hasn’t released the money. That has compelled furloughs.
“Our staff and their families are now paying the price as RFE/RL continues to wait for USAGM to provide our Congressionally appropriated funds. For more than seven decades, RFE/RL has been a vital U.S. national security asset, fighting censorship to bring news to millions of people in the world’s most repressive societies,” says RFE/RL President and CEO Stephen Capus. “RFE/RL will stay in court until we have adequate assurance that USAGM will follow the law and send us the funds that Congress appropriated to us.”
Radio Free Asia, another grantee, finds itself in a similar dire strait. The outlet is crippled as its grants were also halted.
Also facing liquidation is Alhurra TV, under the Middle East Broadcasting Networks. MBN’s 24/7 programming is in Arabic and targets 22 countries in the Middle East and North Africa.
“While the reasons for discarding this key arrow in the quiver of American soft power overseas are shrouded in mystery, the beneficiaries of this abrupt action are no mystery at all,” says Jeffrey Gedmin, MBN’s president and chief executive officer.
”The enemies of America (and Israel) are ecstatic. Hamas, Hezbollah and Houthis are crowing. Iranian-backed militia in Iraq and Lebanese Hezbollah proclaim that American soft power has failed.”
The Office of Cuba Broadcasting, a federal entity under USAGM, which operates Spanish-language Radio and TV Marti, has resumed broadcasting to Cuba on its AM frequency from the Florida Keys. But the USAGM shortwave facility in North Carolina that beams Radio Marti to the Caribbean, remains shut down.
Some journalists at the U.S. government-funded broadcasters now face deportation to hostile homelands.
Anxious employees are trying to help each other, setting a goal of $100,000 to aid the most vulnerable of our colleagues.. They’ve also launched a #savevoa campaign on social media. A legion of lawyers in several states is performing pro bono work for what they see as a life-saving mission after the DOGE chainsaw cut down the networks. There has been no rational explanation given by the USAGM leadership for the suicidal actions.
“While at USAGM, I vow to fully implement President Trump’s executive orders in his mission to reduce the size and scope of the federal government. Today we continue the process of doing that by streamlining our operations to what is statutorily required by law,” said USAGM Senior Adviser, Kari Lake in a posting to the agency’s website nearly a month ago.
Without evidence, Lake accused those under her charge as being “spies and terrorist sympathizers” who were churning out fake news. In media appearances (only with pro-Trump outlets) Lake has taken to calling VOA or USAGM a waste-ridden “rotten fish” and “not pro-America.”
VOA’s charter compels it to present a balanced view of the United States, including on all significant American thought, and a firewall prevents USAGM or any other government entity from censoring the broadcaster’s news content. I’ve been urging people to conclude for theirselves whether VOA displayed any ideological bent by examining the output, frozen in amber, on its website.
Most Americans do not know about the Voice of America, let alone the other media entities under the USAGM umbrella, a cost-effective instrument of the country’s soft power and a significant U.S. public diplomacy component.
To raise awareness among our stakeholders, I’ve been among several of my colleagues getting the word out, consenting to dozens of interviews with media outlets from around the world. I joined colleague Patsy Widakuswara, my successor as VOA’s White House bureau chief, to make the case on 60 Minutes, reaching millions of Americans.
In recent days, we’ve even been on a number of podcasts, including an extended and enjoyable discussion with veteran network broadcaster May Lee on Shoes Off Inside.
As I explained to May, the first shots in the assault on VOA did not occur last month, but several years ago near the end of the first Trump administration, as I detail in my book, Behind the White House Curtain: A Senior Journalist’s Story of Covering the President — and Why It Matters.
It appears I will be compelled to write a second book. I hope it can have a happy ending, but the chances of that occurring grow increasingly remote by the day with irreparable damage done and some of USAGM’s audiences drifting to programming that will fill the void emanating from Beijing, Moscow and Tehran.
