Congress must save the good journalists at VOA

President Trump's decision to shut down the Voice of America, Radio Free Europe-Radio Liberty, Radio Free Asia, Radio y Televisión Martí in Cuba and other U.S. government-funded media entities overseen by the U.S. Agency for Global Media, was sudden, harmful and deeply unfair. It places journalists in foreign language services who have devoted years of their lives to their jobs and have done nothing wrong in an impossible position.

To be sure, these agencies have suffered from terrible management decisions in recent years. But to break things by stopping all programming does not make these agencies better. Rather, it weakens their usefulness to U.S. national security.

Members of Congress from both parties must pressure the White House to allow these broadcasters to resume their work as soon as possible, even while supporting the administration's efforts to restructure, downsize and reform the agency's bloated and dysfunctional bureaucracy.

Although I was shocked by what happened Saturday when these agencies were shut down, I was not entirely surprised. Since I left my journalistic career at the Voice of America and retired from government service in 2006, I have continuously warned various agency CEOs, directors and the oversight board members from both parties that their tolerance of partisan journalism, practiced mainly by the VOA central English newsroom with the tacit approval and often encouragement of the executives above them, would sooner or later result in the defunding of the organization.

I was right to worry and to warn, but I did not anticipate the Trump administration's sudden, drastic and counterproductive action of shutting down all journalistic operations serving audiences abroad.

As someone who listened to Radio Free Europe in Poland under communism, I have a deep appreciation for the critical work of journalists in these foreign language services for U.S. national security and the prevention of violence and war. Journalists in these foreign-language services and their audiences in countries starved for good information are paying a very high price for the mistakes of the agencies' previous corrupt and incompetent management and the radical left-wing partisanship of a relatively small number of their American-born colleagues producing English-language content.

I agree with Kari Lake, Trump's choice to be the VOA director, that the U.S. Agency for Global Media "is not salvageable." I have long called for its abolition. Congress should return to taxpayers some of the money saved by firing hundreds of its bureaucrats and use the rest to support the work of VOA journalists providing uncensored news to nations ruled by the most repressive and authoritarian regimes — China, Russia, Iran, Cuba, North Korea and a few other countries. 

But what happened last week is a tragedy and a gift to those dictators — a sudden, unneeded, harmful and regrettable White House decision to stop all information outreach.

Former VOA China Branch chief Sasha Gong, who was fired by Obama administration appointees a few years ago when she refused to censor an interview offensive to Beijing's communist regime, has speculated that a VOA reporter might have precipitated or hastened this decision by antagonizing Trump, asking him about "expelling" Palestinians from Gaza. This may have been the straw that broke the camel's back, coming after an earlier disclosure that some editors and reporters in the VOA English-language Washington newsroom had refused to refer to Hamas as terrorists and even tried to excuse their murderous rampage of October 2023.

The VOA Charter, passed by Congress in 1976, requires Voice of America "to present the policies of the United States clearly and effectively."

Lake must still be appointed by Trump's nominee for CEO of the U.S. Agency for Global Media, L. Brent Bozell III, who is himself still awaiting Senate confirmation. Lake currently serves as an advisor.

They may ultimately run a much-reduced organization. After Elon Musk called for abolishing the Voice of America and Radio Free Europe-Radio Liberty a few weeks ago, Lake countered that the U.S. "is fighting an information war, and there's no better weapon than the truth." She said that the VOA "can be that weapon" without becoming Trump TV but instead practicing objective journalism.

"With a relatively small budget, along with honest reporting, we can spread the values of freedom all over the world and prevent trillion-dollar wars," she added.

No single event can be blamed for the misguided decision to place most staff on paid administrative leave. It was a reaction to years of corruption by the previous management. As Dan Robinson, a 34-year veteran of Voice of America and its former White House correspondent, wrote last year: "I have monitored the agency's bureaucracy along with many of its reporters and concluded that it has essentially become a hubris-filled rogue operation often reflecting a leftist bias aligned with partisan national media. It has sought to avoid accountability for violations of journalistic standards and mismanagement.” 

I admire Robinson, a lifelong Democrat. But the agency's previous management brought shame upon the organization by, among other things, using taxpayer dollars in a scheme to discredit Robinson and other critics as "right-wing."

Reform is essential. The White House decision, in contrast, imposes collective punishment and, as such, is profoundly unfair to the foreign language services broadcasters. Most are not responsible for the mess caused by the agency's previous partisan appointees.

There are a few problematic foreign language services. Some have outlived their usefulness, but most refugee journalists U.S. Agency for Global Media entities do a stellar job of providing objective news where it is needed. Today, they are crushed and confused while the dictators and authoritarians rejoice.

English-language programming may seem important to people in Washington, but it is not at the core of this agency's mission. Unprofessional English-speaking reporters and editors can be easily let go or replaced, but it will be much harder to replace specialists in foreign languages.

Even if some operations are eventually restored, a journalist in the VOA Russian Service wondered in an e-mail to me what this crisis would do to the nation's reputation, the credibility of VOA programs, and staff motivation. These foreign-born journalists are some of the most talented and hard-working professionals I know.

These journalists are also fearless defenders of human rights. A broadcaster in the VOA Bosnian Service, whom I admire, is deeply worried that some of her colleagues in the other foreign language services may be forced to return to their native countries to live under dictatorships. 

Even in the VOA English newsroom, there are still a few professional and unbiased reporters. One blamed what happened to the agency on March 15 on "insane Hamas apologists running VOA who triggered their own demise." He is ready to resume working without them.

Congress should immediately take bipartisan action to persuade Trump and his Cabinet to let the good journalists get back to work at VOA while also continuing to break up its dysfunctional and corrupt agency bureaucracy.

Ted Lipien was Voice of America's Polish service chief during Poland's struggle for democracy and its acting associate director. He served briefly in 2020 to 2021 as president of Radio Free Europe-Radio Liberty.