VOA: Voice of America or Donald Trump?

[wing2000]

Are Trump's political appointees at the VOA threatening its journalistic independence?

At the Voice of America, staffers say the Trump appointee leading their parent agency is threatening to wash away legal protections intended to insulate their news reports from political meddling.

"What we're seeing now is the step-by-step and wholescale dismantling of the institutions that protect the independence and the integrity of our journalism," says Shawn Powers, until recently the chief strategy officer for the U.S. Agency for Global Media, which oversees VOA.
....
The senior news editor who oversaw VOA's standards and practices was reassigned to a corporate position earlier this summer and has since played no role in guiding coverage or scrutinizing stories flagged as problematic.

And journalists say they are being second-guessed more frequently than they had come to expect. In two cases, stories were removed from VOA's websites after questions were raised. NPR has uncovered an additional instance in which the Voice of America's legal assurance of journalistic independence — known as a "firewall" — appears to have been explicitly violated by Pack and the team he has brought in.

At Voice of America, Trump Appointee Sought Political Influence Over Coverage

 

[cow451]

Are Trump's political appointees at the VOA threatening its journalistic independence?

At the Voice of America, staffers say the Trump appointee leading their parent agency is threatening to wash away legal protections intended to insulate their news reports from political meddling.

"What we're seeing now is the step-by-step and wholescale dismantling of the institutions that protect the independence and the integrity of our journalism," says Shawn Powers, until recently the chief strategy officer for the U.S. Agency for Global Media, which oversees VOA.
....
The senior news editor who oversaw VOA's standards and practices was reassigned to a corporate position earlier this summer and has since played no role in guiding coverage or scrutinizing stories flagged as problematic.

And journalists say they are being second-guessed more frequently than they had come to expect. In two cases, stories were removed from VOA's websites after questions were raised. NPR has uncovered an additional instance in which the Voice of America's legal assurance of journalistic independence — known as a "firewall" — appears to have been explicitly violated by Pack and the team he has brought in.

At Voice of America, Trump Appointee Sought Political Influence Over Coverage

A poster is not stunned.

 

[essentialsaltes]

LINK

The chief executive over the Voice of America and its sister networks has acted unconstitutionally in investigating what he claimed was a deep-seated bias against President Trump by his own journalists, a federal judge has ruled.

Citing the journalists' First Amendment protections, U.S. Judge Beryl Howell on Friday evening ordered U.S. Agency for Global Media CEO Michael Pack to stop interfering in the news service's news coverage and editorial personnel matters. She struck a deep blow at Pack's authority to continue to force the news agency to cover the president more sympathetically.

Actions by Pack and his aides have likely "violated and continue to violate [journalists'] First Amendment rights because, among other unconstitutional effects, they result in self-censorship and the chilling of First Amendment expression," Howell wrote in her opinion.

 

[essentialsaltes]

Voice of America interim director pushed out by Trump-appointed overseer in final flurry of actions to assert control

The head of the agency that oversees Voice of America removed the international broadcasting service’s interim director on Tuesday, in a move apparently aimed at asserting greater control over its editorial operations.

Michael Pack, a Trump appointee who has made sweeping and controversial changes at VOA and its sister broadcasting networks, pushed out Elez Biberaj, a VOA veteran whom Pack had appointed as the head of the service on an interim basis in June.

A federal court last month ordered him not to involve himself in the agency’s news reporting or personnel decisions.

People at VOA said Tuesday that the leading candidate [to replace Biberaj] is Robert R. Reilly, a former VOA director who ... has worked at the conservative Heritage Foundation and ... is the author of several books, most recently “Making Gay Okay: How Rationalizing Homosexual Behavior Is Changing Everything,” which argues that widespread acceptance of gay culture could have harmful social effects.

 

[cow451]

Are Trump's political appointees at the VOA threatening its journalistic independence?

At the Voice of America, staffers say the Trump appointee leading their parent agency is threatening to wash away legal protections intended to insulate their news reports from political meddling.

"What we're seeing now is the step-by-step and wholescale dismantling of the institutions that protect the independence and the integrity of our journalism," says Shawn Powers, until recently the chief strategy officer for the U.S. Agency for Global Media, which oversees VOA.
....
The senior news editor who oversaw VOA's standards and practices was reassigned to a corporate position earlier this summer and has since played no role in guiding coverage or scrutinizing stories flagged as problematic.

And journalists say they are being second-guessed more frequently than they had come to expect. In two cases, stories were removed from VOA's websites after questions were raised. NPR has uncovered an additional instance in which the Voice of America's legal assurance of journalistic independence — known as a "firewall" — appears to have been explicitly violated by Pack and the team he has brought in.

At Voice of America, Trump Appointee Sought Political Influence Over Coverage

Sounds familiar....
nomenklatura
The CPSU's (q.v.) system of appointing key personnel in the government and other important organizations, based on lists of critical positions and people in political favor. Also refers to the individuals included on these lists.

 

[essentialsaltes]

Pack, the CEO of the U.S. Agency for Global Media, also serves as chairman of the boards of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty and Radio Free Asia. Pack and the members of the boards have now added binding contractual agreements intended to ensure that they cannot be removed for the next two years. They could be removed only "for cause" subsequently. Pack stocked those boards with conservative activists and Trump administration officials, despite a tradition of bipartisanship.

A group of more than two dozen senior officials from Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, including Editor-in-Chief Daisy Sindelar, wrote Pack in sharp protest on Wednesday. The group said in a statement obtained by NPR that Pack's actions "will compromise the freedom from political influence that for seven decades has characterized Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (RFE/RL) as an independent surrogate news organization for countries with no free press of their own."

The proposed shift in the board is intended to revoke the network's autonomy, they wrote, representing "precisely the kind of political power maneuver that RFE/RL regularly witnesses in places like Russia, Hungary, Belarus, and Tajikistan. We never thought we'd see it from our own oversight agency." The statement was signed by regional directors, the head of its central newsroom and the heads of almost all its language services. The letter was also sent to congressional leaders, an inspector general and the head of Biden's transition team for the global broadcasting agency.

 

[wing2000]

Pack, the CEO of the U.S. Agency for Global Media, also serves as chairman of the boards of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty and Radio Free Asia. Pack and the members of the boards have now added binding contractual agreements intended to ensure that they cannot be removed for the next two years. They could be removed only "for cause" subsequently. Pack stocked those boards with conservative activists and Trump administration officials, despite a tradition of bipartisanship.

A group of more than two dozen senior officials from Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, including Editor-in-Chief Daisy Sindelar, wrote Pack in sharp protest on Wednesday. The group said in a statement obtained by NPR that Pack's actions "will compromise the freedom from political influence that for seven decades has characterized Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (RFE/RL) as an independent surrogate news organization for countries with no free press of their own."

The proposed shift in the board is intended to revoke the network's autonomy, they wrote, representing "precisely the kind of political power maneuver that RFE/RL regularly witnesses in places like Russia, Hungary, Belarus, and Tajikistan. We never thought we'd see it from our own oversight agency." The statement was signed by regional directors, the head of its central newsroom and the heads of almost all its language services. The letter was also sent to congressional leaders, an inspector general and the head of Biden's transition team for the global broadcasting agency.

...blatant attempt to keep Trump ideologues shaping the VOA content?

 

[Aryeh Jay]

As the undisputed Elected Leader of the United States, Trump is the Voice of America.

 

[SimplyMe]

As the undisputed Elected Leader of the United States, Trump is the Voice of America.

And here I thought you, Aryeh Jay, are the true Voice of America.

 

[Aryeh Jay]

And here I thought you, Aryeh Jay, are the true Voice of America.

While I do have millions of followers, Trump is the only one that collectively has the authority to speak for all Americans.

 

[Skewpoint]

While I do have millions of followers, Trump is the only one that collectively has the authority to speak for all Americans.

This is the way.

 

[Pommer]

While I do have millions of followers, Trump is the only one that collectively has the authority to speak for all Americans.

For sixteen more days (daze?), yes.

 

[essentialsaltes]

Actions by Pack and his aides have likely "violated and continue to violate [journalists'] First Amendment rights because, among other unconstitutional effects, they result in self-censorship and the chilling of First Amendment expression," Howell wrote in her opinion.

Michael Pack, a Trump appointee who has made sweeping and controversial changes at VOA and its sister broadcasting networks, pushed out Elez Biberaj, a VOA veteran whom Pack had appointed as the head of the service on an interim basis in June.

A federal court last month ordered him not to involve himself in the agency’s news reporting or personnel decisions.

In addition to being another Trump-appointed leader harmful to the organization he led, Pack was also profligate with your money.

The former head of Voice of America’s parent agency hired two law firms to open-ended, no-bid contracts, including one specifying that top lawyers would earn $1,470 per hour, according to documents and people familiar with the matter. The two agreements have cost taxpayers close to $4 million over a five-month period, far more than was previously known, and possibly in violation of federal rules.

On the bright side:

Much of Pack’s effort was undone last week by Chao, his successor.

She removed all of the Pack-appointed board members and agency heads within days of assuming leadership of USAGM. She reappointed several people Pack had removed when he took office in June.

 

[essentialsaltes]

The chief executive over the Voice of America and its sister networks has acted unconstitutionally in investigating what he claimed was a deep-seated bias against President Trump by his own journalists, a federal judge has ruled.
Actions by Pack and his aides have likely "violated and continue to violate [journalists'] First Amendment rights because, among other unconstitutional effects, they result in self-censorship and the chilling of First Amendment expression," Howell wrote in her opinion.

Federal inquiry details abuses of power by Trump's CEO over Voice of America​

The report, sent to the White House and Congressional leaders earlier this month, found that the Trump appointee repeatedly abused the powers of his office, broke laws and regulations, and engaged in gross mismanagement.

The 145-page report independently corroborates many of the whistleblower complaints. It also lends new weight and depth to earlier reporting by NPR, inquiries by a U.S. inspector general and rulings by a federal judge and a local District of Columbia judge.

Taken together, they depict Pack's brief tenure as an ideologically driven rampage through a government agency to try to force its newsrooms and workforce to show fealty to the White House.