Curtain Antennas at the Edward R. Murrow Transmitting Station
Following an earlier report from NPR covering (and other sources) the U.S. Agency for Global Media’s restructuring, this is the full official announcement from USAGM. It outlines the agency’s efforts to comply with an executive order aimed at reducing non-statutory functions, cutting costs, and downsizing operations:
USAGM, Senior Advisor Kari Lake cancels obscenely expensive 15-year-lease that burdened the taxpayers and enforces Trump’s Executive Order to drastically downsize agency (USAGM)
Today, in compliance with President Trump’s Executive Order titled, Continuing the Reduction of the Federal Bureaucracy, dated March 14, 2025, the US Agency for Global Media initiated measures to eliminate the non-statutory components and functions to the maximum extent consistent with applicable law. USAGM and the outlets it oversees will be reduced to their statutory functions and associated personnel will be reduced to the minimum presence and function required by law.
This action will impact the agency’s workforce at USAGM, Voice of America, Office of Cuba Broadcasting, and all Grantees. Most USAGM staff affected by this action will be placed on paid-administrative leave beginning Saturday, March 15, 2025, and remain on leave until further notice.
“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. “The US Agency for Global media will continue to deliver on all statutory programs that fall under the agency’s purview and shed everything that is not statutorily required. I fully support the President’s executive order. Waste, fraud, and abuse run rampant in this agency and American taxpayers shouldn’t have to fund it.”
A few of the most egregious findings:
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- Massive national security violations, including spies and terrorist sympathizers and/or supporters infiltrating the agency
- Eye-popping self-dealing involving contracts, grants and high-value settlement agreements
- Obscene over-spending including a nearly quarter-of-a-billion-dollar lease for a Pennsylvania Avenue high-rise that has no broadcasting facilities to meet the needs of the agency and included a $9 million commission to a private real estate agent with connections
- $100s-of-millions being spent on fake news companies
- a product that often parrots the talking-points of America’s adversaries
This agency is not salvageable.
From top-to-bottom this agency is a giant rot and burden to the American taxpayer—a national security risk for this nation—and irretrievably broken. While there are bright spots within the agency with personnel who are talented and dedicated public servants, this is the exception rather than the rule.
It is unfortunate that the work that was done by self-interested insiders in coordination with outside activist groups and radical Leftist advocacy organizations to “Trump-Proof” the agency made it impossible to reform. In fact, they weren’t just “Trump-Proofing” the agency from political leadership, they were accountability-proofing the agency from the American people. They did all this while spending taxpayer money to create false narratives. These were amplified by biased media counterparts with clear conflicts of interest at the Washington Post, NPR and more, to actively cover up their obscene waste, fraud, and abuse.
“This is a significant step toward restoring the greatness of the United States and promoting freedom and democracy. Going forward, I am going to ensure accountability will be the norm and not the exception. I appreciate the work of the dedicated public servants and their contributions to the Agency and its outlets. I look forward to moving forward with modernizing the core mission of telling America’s story throughout the world in a meaningful, impactful and effective way,” Lake added.
Sad to say, next to go to the chopping block will be U.S. Govt. support for NPR & PBS.
“From where is this approach of danger to be expected? I answer, if it ever reach us, it must spring up amongst us. It cannot come from abroad. If destruction be our lot, we must ourselves be its author and finisher. As a nation of freemen, we must live through all time, or die by suicide.”
-A. Lincoln 1837
The Death of a Thousand Cuts, apparently.
With the Orange Menace, there is no bottom. It is nothing short of disgraceful, but just about everything this unqualified nightmare-of-an-an administration does is a disaster. I remember how proud the Reagan Administration was debuting Radio Marti in 1985. Reagan considered the mission of all of these stations to speak to countries that cannot get accurate news about the USA or their own countries. VOA has done it for over 80 years. Elon Musk doesn’t understand and does not care, nor.was he elected to do anything. Trump doesn’t want to.offend Putin and Reagan is spinning in his grave.
It is ironic how ineffective propaganda shortwave broadcasts directed at us were during the Cold War, but how effective Iran, Russia, and China have been helping fund and boost the MAGA propaganda mill on social media.
I guess the only thing that will wake up his supporters trapped in this propaganda media ecosystem is when the cuts hit them personally. Considering Elon’s future targets are gutting the post office which will cause postage prices to soar and end unprofitable rural delivery and eliminate or at least slash Social Security and Medicaid to give more tax cuts to billionaires, maybe that will do the trick. Maybe.
Kari Lake? Two time loser in AZ statewide elections. She was a TV reporter and news anchor. She has no government experience, has never run anything except her mouth. She is totally unqualified for her current position other than her current political views.
I worked on a very big transmitter project back in the 1970s. It was designed to get really big signals into the old USSR, and carried BBC World Service, Deutsche Welle and VOA at various times of day. It ran tens of megawatts, and we had the Soviets using around 45% of all their power generation just for jamming! Of course we’d move the TX frequency +/-10 kHz to dodge the jammers! This was very effective economic warfare.
Trump wouldn’t want to upset his pal Vladimir, so has shut down VOA. BBC World Service was killed by the previous Socialist idiots in the UK in the 1990s. Merkel killed off Deutsche Welle some years ago….
The current stupid western governments simply don’t understand the real value in getting western views and information into those under the yoke of the eastern kleptocracies.
It’s really sad!
these finding amaze me and I have to wonder how long this has been going on and how long it would have continued if it was not for President Trump!
Vladimir Putin continues to rejoice at his bounty today.
Perhaps there is a silver lining here: Contract shortwave stations such as Channel 292, WRMI, WBCQ and others could bid for coverage in various parts of Europe, the Middle East, Russia, and Africa for broadcasts. It would help support the stations that are already there, and it would perhaps grow the market a little bit.
I am sure many of us have heard VOA broadcasts in the 1960s/1970s where they did slow distinct “Simple English” sections.
In the early 1970s when I was learning High School French, I would listen to Radio France International news in English, then listen to RFI French language news which was nearly word for word similar to their English version.
I know that RFI’s English/French news switch-a-rooing helped me.
My ex-US Navy French teacher had a slightly different bit of advice on the matter.
We he heard that my Grandfather took me fishing several summers
on the Quebec side of the New York “Thousand Islands” wilderness area,
he smiled, winked, and said:
“You are hereby ordered to find a Quebec girlfriend“
This purge is long overdue and a step in the right direction
Wow – the ONE place that I visit daily to get away from the politics, has just become like every other place. At least I’ve just discovered that I’m not “among friends and like-minded people”, so I’ll just show myself to the door.
Look for Radio Moscow, Radio Hanoi, Radio Tehran, Radio Peking and Radio Havana to make a BIGLY comeback.
All I can say is that “we warned you”. Trump always meant what he said. You voted for him, you will all suffer the consequences.
Kari Lake was a 3rd-Rate narcissistic egotistical piece of crap newscaster in Phoenix. Other newscasters in Phoenix avoided her like the plague. Naming her to manage VOA meant one thing and one thing only….
KILL IT!!!
Sad ending, but expected.
I was not aware that the VOA had paying contracts to broadcast; so, could it operate more from funds it generates like the postal service? VOA had radio propagation tools to help amateur radio operators find a real-time trajectory to transmit and receive commuications of a personal nature done deliberately without a political message. I would hope VOA to be rebuilt from the ground up with existing parts so as not to be fraudulent, wasteful or abusive while serving the original purpose VOA was commissioned. “He who tooteth NOT his own horn: His horn shall NOT be tootethed.” If someone has a more effective way to tell the world about a working democracy, do that rather than VOA. VOA makes a lot more effective sense by sending valid messages to friends than by money sent as a message to people who openly broadcast their hate for the United States of America. Will car makers stop installing horns?
Nobody has proven there was any waste, fraud or abuse. Just because Elon or other lackey types claim that, it is not proof, it’s just a flimsy excuse. BTW, that building switch actually saved taxpayer dollars. When the BBC World Service moved out of Bush House, nobody declared it was a taxpayer scam. Needs change, things move.
Quite an essay of self-justification. Who could disagree that an agency of “rot from top to bottom” should be eliminated? It must be a source of great relief to it thousands of employees to be released from such bondage. It must be gratifying to learn that your entire career was a waste. Thank the Almighty that Trump has finally arrived and will fix it all! Just what we all needed —,a convicted felon, serial sex abuser, recognized fraudster and grifter, multi-bankrupt businessman, cheater of colleagues and pal to Vladimir Putin to rescue us from such iniquity. /s
I’ve listened to the VOA since the 70s. Of what’s left of its broadcasts in English, despite being a conservative myself, I could not discern any left wing bias in its output to listeners in Africa.
You should reform it, not demolish it. In the meantime CGTN will fill the news gap in parts of the world where the US has strategic interests. You could ask yourself, whoever took this decision are they really actually anti American?