Direct translation
Big news! The White House lists the major crimes of Voice of America
—The U.S. Agency for Global Media has been significantly downsized, and the future of Voice of America is uncertain
Editor: Zhongkang / Source: Epoch Times / https://www.aboluowang.com/2025/0317/2190809.html / Image : Kari Lake, special adviser to the U.S. Agency for Global Media, speaks at the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) on 21 February 2025. (Kayla Bartkowski/Getty Images)
Following Trump's executive order to cut federal agencies, the US Agency for Global Media said it would significantly reduce its size. Almost all employees of Voice of America have entered administrative leave mode, and the radio station is likely to face closure.
On 15 March 2025, the United States Agency for Global Media (USAGM) issued a statement on "substantial reductions in the size of the agency." The statement said that the executive order signed by President Trump the day before to "continue to cut federal bureaucracy" affected employees of all grantees. Most of the staff of the US Agency for Global Media will be on paid leave from now until further notice.
The statement mentioned five "shocking findings" about the agency:
1. Large-scale violations of national security, including the infiltration of spies and terrorist sympathizers and/or supporters into the agency;
2. Eye-popping self-interested transactions involving contracts, grants and high-value settlement agreements;
3. Huge overspending;
4. Hundreds of millions of dollars spent on fake news companies;
5. Frequent repetition of arguments of hostile forces to the United States in the program.
The statement mentioned that the US Agency for Global Media spent nearly $250 million to rent a luxury building on Pennsylvania Avenue in Washington, DC, but there was no broadcasting facility required for work. Kari Lake, special adviser to the media agency, canceled this "extremely expensive 15-year lease."
The statement said that the agency was beyond redemption. It was a completely corrupt and huge agency that had become a major burden on American taxpayers. It had become a national security risk and was beyond redemption. Although there were bright spots within the agency, with talented and dedicated civil servants, this was only an exception, not the norm.
Two days ago, Lake posted on X that "it has been decided to cancel the expensive and unnecessary news communications contracts of the US Agency for Global Media, including tens of millions of dollars worth of contracts with the Associated Press, Reuters and AFP." She said this saved American taxpayers about $53 million.
"We shouldn't pay external news companies to tell us what the news is. We should make the news ourselves," she said.
Trump signed an executive order on 14 March 2025, requiring the statutory functions and related personnel of seven government entities to be reduced to the minimum required by law, and the United States Agency for Global Media is one of them.
The agency is responsible for managing multiple international broadcasting organizations funded by the U.S. government, including: Voice of America, which provides multilingual news; Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, which mainly targets Eastern Europe, Central Asia and Russia; Radio Free Asia, which mainly targets China, North Korea and parts of Southeast Asia; Middle East Broadcasting Network, including Arabic channels Alhurra and Sawa Radio; Cuba Broadcasting Office.
Michael Abramowitz, head of Voice of America, said in a statement that "almost" all of the organization's 1,300 employees have been suspended.
An insider told the Epoch Times on 15 March 2025 that Voice of America "will not be working on Monday (17th)."
Dr. Gong Xiaoxia, a current affairs commentator and former head of the Mandarin group of Voice of America, revealed in the program "Fang Fei Time" that all employees of the Chinese department of Voice of America have received administrative leave notices. According to government regulations, they can be "fired" after 30 days of administrative leave. Voice of America is likely to face the end of being closed.
Voice of America began broadcasting as early as 1941, and has a history of more than 83 years. After the establishment of the Communist Party of China, Voice of America continued to broadcast to China and was regarded as an "enemy station" by the Communist Party of China. Listening to "enemy stations" means being sentenced to heavy sentences, but in that country with information blockade, there are still a large number of people, including senior Communist Party officials, who risk their lives to secretly listen to Voice of America through shortwave to obtain real external information.
Veteran reporter Fang Wei said in a self-media program that his deepest impression was the "June 4" Tiananmen Massacre. "After the shooting in Beijing, everyone had only one source of information, which was Voice of America."
So many Chinese people over the age of 55 have a special feeling for Voice of America, because Voice of America accompanied them through those difficult years.
With the popularization of the Internet, VOA has gradually changed in all aspects, and its stance and ideology have also changed greatly in recent years.
On 15 March 2025, the White House website published an article titled "Radical VOA". The article lists a large number of "radical" aspects of VOA over the years. These include: VOA management told employees not to call Hamas and its members terrorists unless quoted; multiple journalists posted anti-Trump remarks on social media; accused of "having been infiltrated by anti-American, pro-Islamic national interests"; fired journalists under pressure from the Chinese Communist government; broadcast programs about transgender immigrants seeking asylum in the United States, etc.
The article quoted Dan Robinson, a senior VOA reporter, as saying: "I have observed the agency's bureaucracy and many of its journalists, and concluded that the agency has essentially become an arrogant rogue agency that often reflects the left-leaning bias consistent with the partisan national media. It tries to evade responsibility for violating journalistic standards and mismanagement."
Some employees within VOA are overwhelmed by the possibility of its closure. A VOA reporter told the Epoch Times, "I'm really confused. I'm a little anxious. I don't know what Trump wants to do with the China broadcast." The reporter said that he dislikes the left and supports Trump. He believes that the United States needs to fight the CCP in all aspects, and Chinese radio media is indispensable.
Another VOA staff member expressed concern. He said that canceling the China broadcast would benefit the CCP.
However, Gong Xiaoxia believes that the government's current issue is not a question of whether it should be done or not, but a question of cost-effectiveness. If you consider it from this perspective, the VOA is actually doing very badly.
Gong Xiaoxia also mentioned that now is the era of self-media. Everyone has information channels, but some media are not credible, so we must resolutely be a reliable media and a credible media. Traffic is not the most important thing. She said, "I don't care how many people watch it. I just hope that serious people watch it. I will never do something that is sensational. This is what serious media people should do."
However, she also said that when there are a lot of people behind them who need to eat, it is difficult for the media to strike a balance between the two.
No comments:
Post a Comment