Edward R. Murrow Transmitting Station in North Carolina
Journalists at Voice of America and the Office for Cuba Broadcasting arrived for work today only to find themselves locked out, following an order from President Trump’s administration. Over 1,000 employees were placed on indefinite paid leave, and contracts with international broadcasters like Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty and Radio Free Asia were abruptly terminated. According to NPR, the cuts, pushed by Trump’s senior adviser Kari Lake, are raising serious legal and ethical questions — with former USAGM officials calling it “Bloody Saturday” for global media.
These networks, which reach 420 million people across 63 languages, are crucial for delivering uncensored news to regions where press freedom is suppressed. The full article at NPR dives deeper into the shutdowns, political motivations, and what this could mean for global journalism and American soft diplomacy.
Whatever your political beliefs, you’ll find few people who would argue that the United States Government isn’t bloated, inefficient in many ways, and due for a haircut. But the way the current administration has handled it, the destructive nature of these layoffs, firings and takeovers will be felt for generations to come and we’ll all be less well off because of it. We’re going to be poorer, sicker and less well-informed.
An argument can be made that the VOA has outlived its usefulness, or at least the part that relies on shortwave radio. An argument can be made that it should be completely independent of government influence, or that it should be the opposite and be a voice of the administration and/or State Department. But no argument can be made for the cruel and hateful way this and many other government agencies have been hacked to pieces, all to save a few million here or there, to give to billionaires in the form of tax breaks.
I don’t know what is worse, to be honest… the VOA and friends going away completely with all the journalists and engineers fired, or it sticking around to only be a propaganda mouthpiece for an administration that half the country — and much of the world — despises.
Either way, it’s a dark day for America and those who depend on us to get truth to closed of regimes and isolated parts of the world.
Is Radio Marti still on shortwave? I tried all their frequencies today. So far nothing. Even the Cuban jammers halt periodically to see if Greenville is on the air. I noticed their newscasts are now “Noticiero AM” – pushing for the AM reception so perhaps Marathon lives on.
The stream for TV Martí has died in mid-interview. If I don’t hear 6030 later today we’ll know it’s gone.
These suspensions are in place until the White House can determine what their statutory authority over the VOA and USAGM networks are. There have been many questions since the 1980s at least, of whether the VOA and USAGM news should be independent or whether it should be an instrument of promulgating State Department policy.
This is not a new issue. Administrations both Democrat and Republican have weighed in on this issue. At some point, Congress isolated the journalists of these agencies from direct Executive Office directives. Nevertheless, there have been instances of embarrassing misalignment between RFE and their ilk and US policy. A classic example of this was published in 1999 https://www.cia.gov/readingroom/docs/CIA-RDP78-02771R000200230002-0.pdf Often the foreign language broadcasts were shockingly out of alignment with State Department policy. (I’m being very kind here)
So the Trump administration is not treading on new ground here. These discussions have been had many times in the past. GAO regularly reports on issues like this regarding where the money goes for these agencies and what they do. It is not always complementary.
It remains to be seen exactly how much authority the Executive Branch actually has on these agencies. It may well take an act of Congress to change anything. Give the attorneys and policy experts a few days to sort this out.
Des, it’s a terrible day for:
RFA/RFE/RL, Radio Marti, and every one of their operations and undercover reporters in repressed countries.
For decades, China and Russia have ramped up THIER foreign media outlets, and we just shot our foot off.
Madness. Please don’t think all of us agree with this. Millions of us don’t!
Erin go braugh!
What terrible days for decent radio broadcasting from USA .
Des Walsh, C0rk , Ireland